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Local Government Finance

We can all trade examples, so let me provide the hon. Gentleman with one from Hammersmith and Fulham council—one of the Secretary of State's favourites. Is it acceptable to hire for £1,000 a day a consultant who has already been retired, on a £50,000-a-year pension, on grounds of ill health from another council? Value for money and accountability for senior pay are important, which is why we supported those elements in the Localism Bill—but we are going further than the Government suggested, and we hope to gain support for that. However, the reality is that for all the grandstanding on this issue, it does not make a dent in the amount that councils have to find to deal with the front-loaded cuts that the Government have chosen to impose on them.