B

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 10 March 2025

Debate

Plan for Neighbourhoods

Contribution

My Lords, I entirely agree with this Statement that, in the former Government’s levelling-up programme, the Tories’ instinct was to “hoard power”, and that “inflexible restrictions” were placed on how this money could be spent. I entirely welcome what the noble Lord just said: that it is up to the town’s boards and the local communities to decide how money will be spent, which appears to be the opposite of what the Tories were doing. Except that is not what the Statement actually says. It talks about the broadened objectives, which I think are the three long-term aims elsewhere in the Statement: “These new, broadened objectives will give communities the tools to make informed decisions, with a list of interventions aligned with this Government’s central missions”. So, which is it? Do they have to be aligned with the central missions—the famous five pillars we have all heard about many times—or with the long-term aims in this Statement, or is it that the communities can decide for themselves what to spend the money on?

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