Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Conservative — North Cotswolds

Speaking in the House of Commons on 5 February 2025

Debate

Local Government Finance

Contribution

I will in just a second, but I want to make a really important point to the Minister about why all this matters. Why does it matter? If we do not have a set of properly audited accounts, we do not have a sound basis on which to know what we are spending money on. As the Local Government Minister knows only too well, it is not only the audited accounts that are important but the assurance that goes with them, so that council officers, councillors and the public—the council tax payers—can begin to get an idea of whether something is going wrong with their council. I say to him gently that if more councils knew that, we might not run into a situation where they issue section 114 notices. However we cut the cake, when a section 114 notice comes into effect and the Government send in officials to run the council, it always ends up with local people getting a poorer service—they have their services cut—that is more expensive in council tax. It is really bad when a council gets into that situation, and that is why we need proper audited accounts.

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