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6.38 pm
Mr. Win Griffiths (Bridgend): Labour Members have given an accurate account of the parlous state in which the underfunding of local government has left Wales--thanks to the Welsh Office. One thing that we know for sure is that everyone in Wales recognises that, despite the fact that total standard spending is to be higher this year than it was last year, once account is taken of inflation and the fact that last year's total made no allowance for factors such as the teachers' pay award, local authorities have already spent as much as the total standard spending that is allocated for the coming financial year that is to start in April. So, at best, there is a standstill.
Last year, local authorities dipped into their reserves to the tune of slightly more than £100 million. Myhon. Friends the Members for Alyn and Deeside(Mr. Jones), for Delyn (Mr. Hanson) and for Newport, East (Mr. Hughes) have made a powerful plea for the Government to re-examine the settlement's impact on the services provided by local government in Wales. The one chink of light that we have seen--my hon. Friend the Member for Delyn paid tribute to it--was the action that the Secretary of State has taken in relation to Theatr Clywd in Mold, for which we are thankful. We only wish that he viewed all local government spending in Wales in the same positive and progressive manner.
My hon. Friend the Member for Alyn and Deeside pleaded with the Secretary of State to reverse the settlement's effect on teachers' pay. The Under-Secretary of State for Wales, the hon. Member for Clwyd, North-West (Mr. Richards), said, in a written answer to me, that he expected
The Secretary of State ought to say where he believes those economies might be made. He knows that, during the past few years, local education authorities in Wales have cut their administrative expenditure by millions of pounds. The hon. Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans), who comes from Wales, should be better apprised of that fact. The Secretary of State also knows that every county council in Wales is currently giving more than90 per cent. of its education budget to its schools. Councils are doing even better in that respect than the Welsh Office has asked them to do.
Mr. Richards:
The hon. Gentleman mentioned that local government had been underfunded in Wales. Will he tell the House whether, in his view, the total standard spending should be higher--yes or no?
Mr. Griffiths:
I shall return to that point at the end of my remarks. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that I shall examine the issue seriously. After 17 years of disastrous Tory government in Wales, we have serious problems funding the work of local government and other public services. In the past few years, under the Tories, class sizes and pupil-teacher ratios have increased, following
Mr. Richards
indicated dissent.
Mr. Griffiths:
It is no use the Under-Secretary shaking his head. His own written answers have proved that that is the situation; he needs only to check Hansard to confirm it. The figures are marginal in both cases: an increase of 0.2 per cent. in primary schools and of0.8 per cent. in secondary schools. If, however, we examine the impact of those figures on primary schools in terms of class size, we find that, between 1993-94 and 1994-95, there were more than 7,000 children in classes of more than 30, thanks to the cuts.
The truth about Tory rule in Wales during the past few years is a story of cuts all the way. Ministers' parliamentary answers also provide that information. In 1993-94, revenue support grant was 64 per cent. of local government spending. In 1995-96, it has decreased to58 per cent. The truth was revealed in a letter to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Aberavon(Mr. Morris)--[Interruption.] It has been said before, but it is worth repeating because it is the truth, and the truth needs to be rammed home.
The right hon. Member for Conwy (Sir W. Roberts) talked about a wind of change. The wind of change has come from the dales of Yorkshire. It is blowing hard into Wales, bringing easterly winds with the ice and the snow that people in the south Wales valleys are currently suffering. Metaphorically speaking, the world of finance--as my hon. Friend the Member for Caerphilly (Mr. Davies) graphically demonstrated--is having an icy effect on the lives of people in Wales. The Secretary of State wrote to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Aberavon:
He said that; there was no doubt about it. He wanted and planned for a minimum increase of 11 per cent.He planned for local authorities either to cut their services or to raise disproportionately their council tax.
Mr. Richards:
The hon. Gentleman referred to pupil-teacher ratios. Is he therefore saying that more money should be spent on education in Wales--yes or no?
Mr. Griffiths:
I am very happy to answer that question: yes, I do believe that more money should be spent on education in Wales. However, Labour Members are not the people who are examining the books in the Welsh Office, although it will not be too long before we do--and then there will be new priorities. If the Minister is inviting me to come along to the Welsh Office to have a preview of the books, I shall happily take up the offer.
If we are talking about publicly available information about how the Welsh Office is cutting the money it makes available to local government, let us consider revenue support grant which, in constant value terms during the past couple of years, has decreased by more than£37 million. Local government renovation grants have, in
the past year, decreased in real terms by almost£4 million. Housing capital provision has decreased by almost £16 million.
It is no wonder that my hon. Friend the Member for Alyn and Deeside made an impassioned plea for the Welsh Office to release capital receipts so that councils with housing responsibilities--which they will all, of course, have from April--can modernise their housing stock and install central heating so that when the icy winds blow down from the Yorkshire dales, people will be warm. It is cuts all the way.
A Welsh Office press release of 13 December states that, this year, total capital provision in Wales will decrease by more than £17 million. The Secretary of State has tried to present himself as a latter-day Father Christmas by offering £29.1 million and another£15.9 million to dampen the effects of the redistribution of grant to the new local authorities, and by relaxing the capping criteria to enable authorities to raise more money locally.
The Secretary of State knows that if councils in Wales took full advantage of the generous offer and did not cut the services that they provide, but instead sought to fund everything as though there had been no change, seven councils in Wales would have to raise council taxes by more than 30 per cent. Another four councils would have to increase their council tax by more than 20 per cent.; seven councils would require increases of 10 per cent.; and only four councils would require increases of less than 7 per cent. My local authority, Bridgend, is caught in that trap. It will have either to make a huge increase--of more than 36 per cent.--in council tax or to make really serious cuts in services. There is no room for substantial administrative cuts.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Gwilym Jones):
This afternoon, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales set out in detail our settlement decisions for 1996-97 and explained the considerations that have informed those decisions. Notwithstanding the fact that the settlement gives local government a real-terms increase in revenue spending, backed up by an aggregate external support package that covers about 87 per cent. of spending, and notwithstanding the fact that, on a per capita basis, the support is 8 per cent. higher than that proposed for England, we have had a predictable barrage of complaints and criticism from the Opposition.
The hon. Member for Bridgend (Mr. Griffiths) was brave enough to give way when he was asked whether he would increase the local government settlement, yes or no. I shall have to read his speech carefully to try to find the answer. He then criticised my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for enabling local government to raise
more of its money locally. That is a peculiar criticism when my right hon. Friend is responding to local government requests to be able to do exactly that.
What I noticed particularly in this year's debate, which is being held a year to the day after the previous one, is the change in the Opposition. What has happened to the laughable, bumbling, clueless Ron we remember from last year? Today, he was still clueless--that does not change--but last year he was at least able to include two welcomes in his speech. He welcomed the increase in total standard spending and he welcomed the increase in spending for the police. This time, he gave a tired, jaded, sour performance.
There may be a clue to the decline of the hon. Member for Caerphilly (Mr. Davies) in his speech last year.He had barely got a paragraph into it when he was pressed by one of his hon. Friends to increase the shadow budget for Wales. Amazingly, he claimed:
Throughout his speech, then as now, he told us nothing about the shadow budget. Doing one thing and saying another has become the hallmark of the Labour party; in the hon. Member for Caerphilly we have someone who will take it to the nth degree. He is capable of saying one thing, and then another thing, but no one understands what on earth he means. I shall let everyone into the secret.He does not understand either.
"pay awards in the public sector, including those subject to the recommendations of the School Teachers' Review Body, to be met through increased efficiency and other economies."--[Official Report, 18 January 1996; Vol. 269, c. 755.]
"I believe that over time local authorities in Wales should raise a higher proportion of their income from council tax. The 11 per cent. increase is the result of this approach."
"There are no restrictions on our shadow budget".--[Official Report, 8 February 1995; Vol. 254, c. 361.]
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