---

Local Government Funding (Poole)

I agree with the hon. Lady with whom I share representation of the borough of Poole. Both the Conservative and Liberal groups have a common front in trying to get a better grant for Poole. Both parties feel that we are not being very well treated. The council is looking to make significant efficiencies in next year’s budget, and it is expecting to make them beyond the Gershon review. I am fortunate to be able to say that, although the council’s final decision will be made on 16 February, it is looking as though there will be a 3.5 per cent. increase. Such an increase takes a lot of hard work and one way that the council was able to introduce an increase of that level despite bad funding from central Government is by keeping high vacancy levels and controlling staffing to increase its balances. It keeps control in that way. It is very much aware that our profile of an elderly population means that many people on fixed incomes find it difficult to meet a substantial part of their budget, so it is doing all that it can to minimise the tax burden on local people. Poole people get significantly less Government funding and there are the whole range of costs that the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) mentioned. We expect annual pay settlements to go up by 3 per cent. and there are additional recruitment and retention pressures. The changes to advance corporation tax have had a big impact on local authority pensions, and Poole local authority workers are mainly part of the Dorset pension scheme that has suffered and requires more money. Waste management, street cleansing, licensing, highway maintenance and the EU hazardous waste directive present further costs, and the council is also looking at paying, with an increase this year, about £1.2 million in landfill tax that eventually goes back to the Treasury. They are very real costs. Let us contrast and compare where we are. Fortunately, Poole is not at the bottom of the list of all-purpose authorities. That place is taken by Wokingham, which is preceded by Windsor and Maidenhead, Rutland and then Poole. Poole’s formula grant per head is £166.53. Of course, there are no doubt different circumstances in the all-purpose unitary authorities, but let us consider a few boroughs that may have a similar profile to Poole. For example, I know that my colleagues in Bournemouth next door do not think that they are very well funded, but it receives £293.61, which is £127 more than Poole. Some of the streets in Poole stop where those in Bournemouth start, and there are probably slightly more people on benefit in Bournemouth because there are more hostels there. However, the difference is substantial when it is sometimes difficult to tell whether one is in Poole or in Bournemouth. I guess that Torbay’s profile—it is a seaside and retirement area—is not dissimilar to that of Poole. The formula grant per head in Torbay is £328.01, which is £161 more than Poole. I suspect that Brighton and Hove faces many issues similar to those faced in the Bournemouth and Poole area, but it gets £385.29. We are very much adrift from many comparable authorities.