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Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

We will come to that a bit later. Local government is at the heart of national life and has a unique role in our communities. It plays a crucial role in delivering services, leading and co-ordinating the activities of local public, private and voluntary organisations, and making villages, towns and cities more prosperous and pleasant to live in. I pay tribute to councillors of all parties and to hard-working public servants for the way in which they have raised standards, so that the Audit Commission’s comprehensive performance assessment now classifies two thirds of upper tier authorities as either ““excellent”” or ““good””. Important changes are under way in local government. Local authorities are leading new children’s trusts across the country that are bringing together social services, education, health and other services. Local area agreements enable councils and central Government to recognise and to agree local priorities, to rationalise funding streams and to support greater local leadership. Our manifesto set out an ambitious programme of further public sector reform, continuing the improvement in neighbourhood services to make them more responsive to the needs of people who use them. Since 1997, there has been a 33 per cent. real terms increase in grants to local government. Investment and reform have gone together and have delivered.