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Local Government Finance

I do not agree that Government help has been limited. It is possible that when my hon. Friend the Minister winds up, she will be able set out how much Richmond has received over the years. However, I acknowledge that there is an underlying point, and that it is an inescapable part of the settlement. Almost inevitably, the funding formula that we have will reveal that some authorities are further from the formula target than others. Each year, the grant settlement is designed to make progress towards that target, but we must have a floor system that regulates the rate of change that takes place each year. Some authorities are affected by that, but it is very difficult to design a system that does not have some element of that sort.