---

Local Government Funding (Poole)

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I am grateful for your protection. If the hon. Gentleman wants to drop me a line on that specific question, I am sure that we will be able to provide a detailed answer. As the hon. Member for Poole said, sometimes the point is not simply to make representations in respect of this particular year; it is to lay foundations for arguments for subsequent years. This is an ongoing dialogue with local authorities. The Minister for Local Government’s visit to Poole next month will be part of that. The central allocation makes explicit what was always implicit in the system—that after taking account of differences in relative needs and resources, some of the grant is allocated on a per capita basis. We regard stability as a key issue in local government funding. I have already made it clear that the grant floor is a long-term part of the funding system. The hon. Gentleman raised issues about the funding formula. To work out each council’s share of formula grant, we need first to calculate the relative needs formulae, which include information on the population, social structure and other characteristics of each authority. Each of the main services provided by councils has its own relative needs formula. There are seven formulae in all for children’s services, adult social services, police, fire, highways maintenance, environmental, protective and cultural services, and capital finance. The formulae assess the relative need for a particular service in each area based on the characteristics of the area. The hon. Member for Poole suggested that the funding formulae do not recognise the significant pockets of deprivation within Poole. However, most of the funding formulae take account of the relative levels of deprivation in each area. For example, in calculating Poole’s relative need for children’s social care, we take account of the proportion of local children in income support households and the proportion of working age adults who claim income support. To calculate the relative needs formula for environmental, protective and cultural services, we take account of rates of incapacity benefit, income support and other unemployment related benefits in each area. It is wrong to say that the funding formulae ignore deprivation factors in Poole or elsewhere. In fact, our formulae take detailed account of the relative levels of deprivation in each local authority area. The hon. Gentleman suggested that the higher than average number of ageing people in Poole places a greater strain on social services. However, that is taken into account in the older people’s social services funding formula, which is based on the number of pensioners in each area, their levels of deprivation and the proportion of very old people living in each area. The Government are committed to ensuring that local authorities can deliver effective local services without needing to impose excessive increases in council tax.