Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 20 Rhagfyr 1973.
I am grateful to the Minister for explaining the orders and for his appreciation of the part that the local authorities have played in co-operating with the Government. That is important, in view of what I shall have to say about the lamentable performance on other matters affecting local authorities, which contrasts with the courtesy and understanding always shown to local authorities by the Minister for Local Government and Development, who seems to have lost control of his colleagues in Government in their dealings with local government.
The Government's policy for local government lies in absolute ruins. Even before the events of the last two weeks there was utter confusion throughout the land about local government reorganisation. There have been created great new metropolitan areas, great new county areas, great new district councils, regional water authorities, new health executive councils and area boards. All that has been going on for the last two years and it is extremely expensive, as we warned it would be time and again in debating the Local Government Bill now before the House and the Local Government Bill of last year.
What have these new local authorities been doing? They have been appointing new officers at salaries the like of which have not previously been seen in local government. Top jobs have been filled at very high salaries and, now, these senior officers of the new metropolitan councils are busy recruiting new staff to fill the new departments. This is an inescapable consequence of the system. In any case it was bound to be an expensive burden for ratepayers.
That was the situation that existed even before the economic crisis, and the Opposition warned time and again about the costs. This is why we have opposed this form of local government reorganisation. But to all this confusion there will now be added the chaos of the Government's present economic policies. In considering cut-backs in essential services, it is inexcusable that the high costs of local government administration should be duplicated at the expense of the services provided, for this is the consequence of the Government's present action. It might still be cheaper to scrap local government reorganisation, even though it has already gone a long way. In the present crisis I believe that a feasibility study should be undertaken to examine the costs and the merits of local government reorganisation. The process has probably gone too far to reverse entirely at this stage, but I suggest that the situation should be re-examined.
Whatever the case about local government reorganisation and however far that has gone, I am certain that the Government should at once scrap their proposals for reorganisation of water undertakings and also the health service. The present emergency demands that, in the national interest, expensive duplication of administration should end forthwith. There can be no doubt that in the two services which I have mentioned, reorganisation has not yet gone too far. Some chairmen and top officials have been appointed, but their jobs can be put "on ice" for a time and this will save many millions of pounds.
There is growing evidence of concern among Ministers on this topic. We heard the Leader of the House a little earlier express concern about the duplication of staffing in local government reorganisation and the very high salaries paid to some of the new appointees. As an old local government man, I bitterly resent the outrageous threats which are now being levelled by successive Government Ministers against local government. The hysterical note that has come into Ministers' voices is to be deprecated. The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment has made a recent speech on the subject, and there have been comments by other Ministers, particularly by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who was in an aggressive mood when addressing a recent conference of municipal treasurers.
Perhaps I may first quote the words of the Under-Secretary of State for the Environment:
It will be too soon to judge with certainty whether local government reorganisation will be more or less prodigal in its use of manpower, but some of the signs are disturbing. In many parts of the country we are getting reports that the new authorities, formed by amalgamations of four or five previous districts, are budgeting for a level of staff 10, 20 or even 30 per cent. higher than the combined total staffs employed by their predecessors.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury in his remarks made what most of us regard as a considerable threat to local authorities, but that threat pales into insignificance when we examine the words of his right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House last night. The right hon. Gentleman said:
If any local authority deliberately sets out to flaunt the national interest, if it deliberately sets out to pursue a policy counter to the request that we have made and the rates go up in consequence, the necessary steps will no doubt be taken to remind electors where responsibility lies. I would add this: such deliberate action could well call in question the continuance of the present system of local autonomy over current expenditure which also carries with it the duty to act responsibly." [OFFICIAL REPORT 19th December, 1973; Vol. 866, c. 1470.]
In my 18 years in the House I have taken part in many debates on local government matters, but this is the first time that I have heard any Minister in any political party suggest, on behalf of the Government, that local authorities are deliberately setting out, or might be setting out, to act against the national interest.