Rishi Sunak: Our policy is to consider against the criteria the Secretary of State announced on 7 November 2017, any proposal for merging district councils when requested. It is for the councils making such a proposal to decide how to demonstrate the level of local support for it.
Rishi Sunak: The Department continues to work in partnership with the Local Government Association to closely monitor the situation. We remain in close contact with the relevant councils, and have confidence that authorities will continue to manage the situation and ensure that public services continue to be delivered with minimal disruption.
Rishi Sunak: That work is still underway and I will update the House when that work has concluded. The government remains committed to the transparency agenda and in ensuring that local authorities are accountable to citizens.
Rishi Sunak: My Department has frequent discussions with local authorities on a wide range of issues which may include discussions about unitary authority status.
Rishi Sunak: Wolverhampton City Council will have available £876.7 million in Core Spending Power between 2016/17 to 2019/20. Information on Wolverhampton’s Revenue Support Grant funding can be found on line at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-re venue-expenditure-and-financing.
Rishi Sunak: The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, together with the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016, provide powers for the Secretary of State, subject to Parliamentary approval, to implement, by secondary legislation proposals for unitarisation made by one or more councils in the area.
Rishi Sunak: I am placing in the Library of the House copies of all the representations which the Secretary of State has received from local authorities in Dorset on local government reorganisation since 7 November 2017.
Rishi Sunak: Detailed revenue financing data from all local authorities in England are published each year on the Department's website at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-ex penditure-and-financing
Rishi Sunak: Central government does not collate this information. Local government workforce matters are devolved and it is for councils as independent employers to make decisions on staff disciplinary. This information will be held locally.
Rishi Sunak: The further steps taken to secure local consent involved both East Dorset District Council and Purbeck District Council withdrawing their opposition to the Dorset proposal.
Rishi Sunak: Council tax decisions are a matter for local authorities. However, we continue to ensure that council tax-payers can veto excessive increases via a local referendum. We expect council tax to remain lower in real terms in 2018-19 than it was in 2010-11.
Rishi Sunak: The information to which the Secretary of State had regarded when making his decision on the Dorset unitary proposal included financial estimates from the work of independent professional firms indicating that savings of some £28 million per year could be made. Information on costs and benefits is available on www.futuredorset.co.uk.
Rishi Sunak: The position, including reasons, of Bournemouth and Poole Borough Councils in relation to the inclusion of Christchurch Borough in a new unitary authority was set out in their representations of 5 and 4 January 2018 respectively. Further to the answer Question UIN 129890 on 1 March 2018, I am placing these representations in the Library of the House.
Rishi Sunak: In addition to the spending review package, the Government provided a further £2 billion for adult social care at last year’s Budget and an additional £150 million in the most recent local government finance settlement. As a result, councils will be able to increase spending on adult social care in real terms each year until 2020.
Rishi Sunak: The 2018-19 settlement is the third year of a four-year deal providing funding certainty and is accepted by 97% of councils. The settlement sees a real-terms increase in resources to local government over the next two years, totalling £45.1 billion in the forthcoming financial year.
Rishi Sunak: Over the spending review period, councils will receive more than £200 billion to deliver local services. This money is largely not ring-fenced, so local authorities can prioritise where they see fit, including for their statutory duties relating to children in care.
Rishi Sunak: I know that my hon. Friend is a doughty champion of rural areas. I am delighted to tell him that his point will be exactly considered in the fair funding formula. I am sure that he will be heartened by the local government finance settlement, where we increase rural services delivery grant to its highest ever level.
Rishi Sunak: Whilst the financial estimates in the Dorset councils’ proposal have not been adjusted since their production, the representations received from councils, and which I have placed in the Library of the House, set out the councils’ views of the impact of changes in circumstances on the case for the unitary proposal.
Rishi Sunak: The Government has no plans to undertake a council tax revaluation.
Rishi Sunak: The Secretary of State had regard to all the relevant information available to him when considering the proposal from Dorset councils including, as I referenced in my answer to Question UIN 131575 on 12 March 2018, the findings of the open questionnaire and the household survey, as well as any comments and representations relating to the questionnaire and survey.
