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Local Government Finance

My hon. Friend is right. Certainly the West Yorkshire fire service does an extremely good job in meeting the needs of all our constituents. Worse is to come if Ministers insist on proceeding with the cuts that they have planned for years 3 and 4. As the Minister will know, the metropolitan fire chiefs have been so worried about the prospect that they have given Ministers a stark warning in their response to the review, in which they say:"““The Mets have already shouldered 62% of the cuts in the English fire and rescue service outside London in the first two years…The cuts planned for years 3 and 4 are unsustainable and would lead to life threatening reductions in fire cover and national resilience capacity””." Unless the Minister has a very good answer to that, he ought to reconsider his plans for the cuts in years 3 and 4. Last year the Local Government Association warned that the consequences of the cuts in local government finance would be felt in front-line services, although—the Minister made this point—many councils have rationalised back-office services and cut costs. The approach of the Secretary of State and the Minister is to blame councils for all this, claiming that front-line cuts are not necessary. I was interested to read what the Minister told the Select Committee back in 2010, when he was questioned by its Chair, my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts). My hon. Friend put this to him:"““So the bottom line from your point of view, then, as a ministerial team, is that there is no need for any cuts in services in local government at all.””" The Minister replied:"““No, they shouldn't be cutting the front-line services.””" Only a group of Ministers who were completely divorced from what was going on in the real world in local government could say such a thing in public. We know, however, that in private some of them have said something rather different. Last year the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Andrew Stunell) wrote to fellow Liberal Democrats—[Hon. Members: ““Where is he?””] He cannot be locked in the Division Lobby this time, but it would have been nice to see him here. In his letter, he described the local government settlement as ““very disappointing””. A year ago, Liberal Democrat councillors published a letter in The Times in which they said that local government was"““being let done by the Communities and Local Government Secretary””." Even a good friend of the Secretary of State and the Minister, the much respected Baroness Eaton, accused Ministers of being"““detached from the reality councils are dealing with””."