L

Lord Beamish (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 12 February 2025

Debate

English Devolution and Local Government

Contribution

My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that the noble Baroness who speaks on behalf of the Conservative Party has a short memory? It was the last Conservative Government who held a gun to the heads of local councils, withholding funding unless they had a devolution deal. On finance, they not only cut the budgets in local government by 30% but fixed the system to move money from poor areas to rich areas—confirmed by Rishi Sunak in his leadership bid. Debt was encouraged by the Government at the time; getting into speculative development to plug the hole in local government finance. Does the Minister also agree that there are success stories in unitary councils, one being Durham County Council, which came into being in 2009? It abolished seven inefficiently led local district councils which, if they had still been in existence, would have gone by the by because of austerity.

More from Lord Beamish (Lab)

Other recent Hansard contributions by the same speaker.

About Hansard

Hansard is the official verbatim record of proceedings in the UK Parliament. Every word spoken in the Commons and Lords is recorded and published — this page is a single contribution from that record.

Partner sites