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Local Government Funding (Poole)

Of course the problem that my hon. Friend highlights applies to Poole. When local authority officers in the borough of Poole examine how the grant is calculated, it is difficult for them to work out why we do so badly. If we had a better idea of how the grant was calculated, perhaps we could more effectively make representations to try to put the situation right. Let me touch on this year’s dedicated schools grant. The Minister’s constituency goes across two London boroughs: Tower Hamlets and Newham. The dedicated schools grant for Tower Hamlets is £5,610 a pupil and Newham receives £4,526 a pupil. Poole receives a dedicated schools grants of £3,349 a pupil. A secondary school with 1,600 pupils in Tower Hamlets would thus receive £8.976 million, while such a school in Poole would receive £5.3 million. I know that there are specific problems in Tower Hamlets, such as linguistic problems, and I do not wish to do down the Minister’s constituency, but the gap is large and I hope that the Government will start to do something about it. The precept of Poole borough council is not the only worry. Dorset fire and rescue service has concerns, especially about the way in which the new pension arrangements have been worked out. Although it welcomes the new pension arrangements, it thinks that there is a shortfall of £950,000. I have received a long letter from Dorset police. It is the second lowest funded authority in the country and has one of the highest precepts. It has real problems and estimates that a £1 million pension shortfall will have to be met by council tax payers. There is pressure from all directions on my constituents. We in Poole have done our best over the years to make our case. Delegations have been to see Ministers, and Baroness Andrews cordially received me, the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole, Dr. Brian Leverett, who is the leader of the council, and Mr. Mike Brooke, who is leader of the Liberal Democrats on the council, when we went to lobby her. We invited her to come to look at Poole so that she could see that we needed more grant. I hope that the Minister or one of his colleagues will come to Poole to see our problems and not only the wealthy parts, but some of the deprived areas, because we do not think that they are being addressed by the grant that we are receiving. There is a sense of grievance in Poole. What we get puts us very much at the bottom of the league, although that does not mean that all our outputs are bad, as can be seen from our provision for schools and the way in which the council conducts its business. The council has been a good authority for several years and has attracted good officers. However, a council has to work much harder when its funding is low. When Poole’s situation is compared with that of Bournemouth and other south-coast authorities with similar problems, one sees that we are badly treated. I know that the grant is fixed for this year and that nothing can be done about it following last week’s votes. However, I hope that the Minister will reflect on what I have said. Poole will come back next year to make further representations to try to improve our support. Poole deserves more support for not only the people who work hard for Poole council, but the services that the council provides.