Alison McGovern MP: speeches

Speeches

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I think those three questions have been answered in what I have already said, so I refer the hon. Gentleman to my earlier answers.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  Wherever there are challenges as we transition to this new funding formula, I will work really closely with colleagues. I will do that especially with my friends in Trafford, and I look forward to meeting with my hon. Friend again soon to discuss that.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I have to agree with my hon. Friend that it is not just the people of Bedford who are excited about Universal Studios; the excitement can be felt across the United Kingdom. Today’s settlement hopefully helps us on that journey, but I will happily meet him to discuss the impacts on Bedford and the wider area.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for raising that point, which is very apposite given the effects of climate change and other things. I am sure that the fire Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Chester North and Neston (Samantha Dixon), will have heard what she said, and we will all work together to make sure it is addressed.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for his consistent championing of Peterborough in this House—and, frankly, in my ear—at all times. He always stands up for his constituents, and I have been pleased to visit Peterborough on a number of occasions. I want to see the significant investment that we are making in Peterborough help it to thrive. It has great potential and fantastic young people, and I look forward to being invited back to see exactly what is happening there.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  My hon. Friend is right to describe the serious and challenging situations that lots of parts of the country face. I am anxious to ensure that we make progress in Bradford, not only because Bradford and places like it suffer from the consequences of poverty, but because Bradford has one of the youngest populations in the country. It is part of our future: we must back our young people, and I want to see Bradford grow and its people do well.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  The hon. Lady has made precisely the case that I was trying to make in my statement. We must fund councils properly, but if we do not get a grip on escalating costs it will do no good; we will still have unsustainable councils. I am already working with colleagues in the Department for Education, and if the hon. Lady would like to send me details of the case that she mentioned, I will be happy to investigate it.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I have a much greater level of confidence that we can find pockets of deprivation in rural areas, because the latest indices of multiple deprivation are much better-quality data. I will happily discuss that with the hon. Gentleman as we meet to talk about the finances in central Bedfordshire.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I will.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for that comprehensive run through all the issues. She is right that we need not just funding but policy change to get councils to financial sustainability. I look forward to discussing that with my hon. Friend and her Committee. She also asked about council tax reform, which was not the subject of my statement, but I have no doubt that she will be asking me about it again in the near future.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Lady for speaking up on behalf of rural areas. In addition to what I have said to a number of hon. Members, I would add that it is not just in adult social care that we recognise the difference that rurality makes. Overturning 14 years of Tory misrule of councils will take time. We will engage with all councils, including her council, and it is my objective to get local authorities back on a sustainable footing.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  The hon. Lady asked if I recognise that issue, and I have already said several times that I do, as well as setting out some of the steps that we are taking to address it. As I said, I will happily work with hon. Members on both sides of the House to take local authorities, wherever they are, on a journey towards sustainability.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Gentleman and former council leader for his question. It is nice to have a bit of agreement at Christmas, Madam Deputy Speaker—if it is over multi-year settlements, then then so be it. I will write to him with the specific details about his area and how the remoteness formula affects the council's funding.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question and his description of his unusual and wonderful area. I do not recognise the figures he mentioned just then, but I will happily meet him and any colleagues he wants to bring, and we will go through the numbers together in detail.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for being a brilliant champion for Croydon. She has stood up for the people she represents. We know that poverty in London has changed, and areas such as Croydon have experienced an increase. This funding settlement is a recognition of that reality. We want Croydon to thrive, which is why, after publishing this information today, we will work with local authorities over the coming months so that they can set their budgets in the normal way in the spring. Croydon has a great future ahead and I want to work closely with my hon. Friend to make sure that happens.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  It certainly does. Our first duties as Members of Parliament are to listen to our constituents and to be in this House. My hon. Friend always stands up for his constituents, unlike others who are not here.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to highlight how we have to do things differently in rural areas, and we have tried to take account of that need. That is why we are including a journey times adjustment in our assessment of cost for all services. We are also increasing the cap in the home-to-school transport formula from 20 miles to 50 miles, in recognition of the fact that the original distance cap would penalise local authorities that have no choice but to place children further from home. We are also including a remoteness adjustment in the adult social care formula to address the point that he mentions. Overall, the point cannot be made enough that we have to do things differently in rural areas, and we all need to take account of that.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  Places such as Medway deserve a lot better, and through her championing of her constituency in the House, my hon. Friend is ensuring that they will get it. We want to see councils invest in high streets, and we want to see those high streets thrive, along with other services. I would be happy to visit my hon. Friend’s constituency and see for myself what we can do to improve it.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I am glad that the hon. Gentleman was listening when I gave my earlier answer on rurality. We have recognised where there are extra cost pressures, and I will happily discuss this in detail with him if he wishes. This is recognised in the statement and in the data that we have taken account of. The new deprivation statistics are much more fine-grained, and they can find poverty wherever it is, whether it is in a town, a city, a village, a rural area or wherever.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I can hardly wonder at getting that purely political response when I made the perfectly legitimate political point that under the Tories a lot of councils were dealt very bad funding settlements indeed. We do not need to trade political insults to see the libraries closed, the parks left unmaintained and the damage done to councils, but I look forward to discussing this issue with the hon. Member across the Dispatch Box as we move forward, once he has talked to his own councils about the funding settlement they will be receiving. The hon. Member asked some slightly more important questions, particularly on SEND. He will know that this is primarily a matter of getting the absolute best outcome for our children. The Department for Education will bring forward plans in the new year, and I am working closely with Ministers in that Department to ensure that we get it right. I mentioned some of the details in my statement. I do not recognise the picture described by the hon. Member on devolution, and I feel confident in saying that nor would the Minister for devolution, my hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Miatta Fahnbulleh), who is in her place. She announced significant investment for the places affected, and we all look forward to working with areas up and down the country to ensure that our country grows as we wish it to.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  On 20 November, my Department published a policy statement setting out our approach to the first multi-year local government finance settlement in a decade. Today, we publish the provisional settlement itself and launch our formal consultation on the proposals. It represents the choices we are making as a Government. Unlike the Tories, we will not look the other way as poverty gets worse. We will not ignore the economic and social costs of deprivation. The spending review announced over £5 billion of new grant funding for local services over the multi-year settlement period. That includes £3.4 billion of new grant funding being delivered through this settlement. Before I give more details, I want to make this point. For 14 years, the Tories decimated local government, asking local leaders to do more with less, and that had consequences. Local high streets are always changing, but deprived towns saw more empty shops, more vape shops and more pawnbrokers than other places. Their councils did not have the resources to do anything about it. In 2019, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy found that nearly 800 libraries had closed since 2010. In 2022, The Guardian newspaper uncovered a real-terms annual cut of nearly £330 million to the upkeep of our local parks, with the biggest cuts in the poorest parts of the country. The last decade and a half of austerity impacted every community, but the very worst effects were felt by people living in the most deprived areas—and that was a choice. By breaking the link between funding and deprivation, the Tories punished poorer councils. Year after year, they exacerbated inequality. As a result, too many places in this country feel forgotten and left to fend for themselves. The answer is not Reform’s return to austerity or the Tories’ carping from the sidelines; it is to use the best data we have available to redesign the funding system so that deprivation is recognised and addressed within the settlement. That is why the figures we are publishing today are derived using the very latest data from the 2025 index of multiple deprivation released at the end of October this year. It is why, according to our analysis, whereas under the old system deprivation scores could account for only 25% of variation in per capita funding applications, under this settlement it is up to 75%, with other important factors such as coastline, miles of road or visitor numbers making up the rest. In addition, we are giving councils more certainty with the first multi-year settlement in a decade, allowing local leaders to focus on long-term investment and change. We are addressing the damage of austerity by maintaining the £600 million recovery grant allocations from 2025-26, targeted towards those most impacted by the cuts, and introducing a recovery grant guarantee, providing an above-real-terms increase to social care authorities that received the grant last year. We are supporting local authorities through change by providing funding floors and phasing in new allocations across the multi-year settlement. We are improving efficiency and value for money by simplifying an unprecedented 36 funding streams, worth more than £56 billion over the multi-year settlement. We are resetting the business rates retention system to restore the balance between aligning funding with need and rewarding local growth, and unlocking the dream of home ownership for more people by boosting real incentives for councils to build new homes. We know that councils are concerned about what will happen at the next spending review, so we will keep working closely with them to avoid cliff edges in funding. This settlement is our most significant move yet to make English local government sustainable at last. It will take overall core spending power for local government to over £84.6 billion by ’28-29—equivalent to a 15% cash-terms increase compared with ’25-26. The Labour Government have made it clear that we back local government through action. Since coming into power, we have made available a 23.6% increase in core spending power in ’28-29 compared with ’24-25. However, we have to do more, because the previous Government’s funding system left local government in chaos. Social care costs were soaring out of control, with very little focus on prevention. Children’s social care, the impact of a failing special educational needs and disabilities system, and the spiralling costs of homelessness and temporary accommodation have destabilised council funding, even where councils have acted judiciously to protect the public pound through this difficult era. That is why we need national change to empower local councils to maximise the benefit of this announcement. The Government are building a national care service based on higher quality of care, greater choice and control and better integration. This is backed by around £4.5 billion of additional funding made available for adult social care in ’28-29, compared with ’25-26. We are changing children’s social care through the families first partnership, funded with £2.5 billion over the next three years, because all children deserve good parenting and a loving home environment—and we know that costs less in the long run, too. The children’s social care residential market is broken, and we are taking action. Using powers in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the Housing and Education Secretaries will explore how we might implement a profit cap in the children’s social care placement market, which would be a crucial step in ensuring that public money delivers value and care, not profiteering. We will set out further information on our approach in 2026. On special educational needs and disabilities, in the new year the Government will bring forward the schools White Paper, which will set out ambitious plans to reform special educational needs provision. But we recognise the impacts of the dedicated schools grant deficits on local authorities’ accounts. In future, special educational needs provision will be funded by central Government; local authorities will not be expected to fund costs from general funds once the statutory override ends in March 2028. We will provide further details on our plans to support local authorities with those deficits later in the settlement process. On homelessness, Members have already heard me acknowledge that temporary accommodation is another growing financial pressure on councils, with spend reaching nearly £3 billion in ’24-25. Last week, we published the national plan to end homelessness—our strategy to prevent homelessness before it occurs. We have set clear objectives to get our children out of costly B&Bs and to help councils to balance the books. The Government intend to maintain a core 3% council tax referendum principle and a 2% adult social care precept for the vast majority of councils. We are committed to ensuring that the funding system is fair for taxpayers throughout the country. In some areas, council tax levels are radically lower than others. Council tax bills for £10 million houses in some of the wealthiest parts of the country can be less than what an ordinary working family pays in places like Blackpool or Darlington. The Government plan to lift referendum principles in ’27-28 and ’28-29 for Wandsworth, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, City of London, Kensington and Chelsea and Windsor and Maidenhead. This change will improve fairness, as taxpayers in those councils have the lowest bills in the country, and this year paid up to £1,280 less than the average council taxpayer. It will enable the Government to allocate more than £250 million of funding in the system more fairly, instead of subsidising bills for the half a million households in those council areas. It will also provide greater flexibility for those authorities in deciding how to manage their finances following our reforms. The councils will decide on the level of council tax increase to set and whether to draw on the relatively high alternative sources of income from which a number of them benefit. We know that adapting to our reforms will take time. We will therefore continue to have a support framework in place next year to help authorities in challenging positions. Following precedent set by previous Governments, councils in significant financial difficulty can request additional flexibility from the Government. In making that decision the Government have been clear, unlike the Tories, that they will not agree to increases where the council has above-average council tax. In recognition of cost of living pressures, each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and decisions will reflect the support offered to low-income and vulnerable residents. In closing, I go back to the libraries that have been closed and the parks that have been neglected. Under this Labour Government not only is our Chancellor of the Exchequer making sure that our schools have libraries, but we are making sure through this funding that councils can ensure that parks are good for our children to play in. We can never turn the clock back—we cannot undo all the past damage to councils—but we can change town hall finances so that councillors battling the consequences of poverty have a Government who are on their side for once. We said we would restore the link between funding and deprivation, and today we are doing exactly that. There will be no more forgotten people left to fend for themselves and no more forgotten places sneered at by Conservative Members, but a fighting chance for every place in this country. I commend this statement to the House.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  Yes.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  First, I must pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his work on this. I might be putting the ball in the net today, but he was the midfielder who created the goal. It is his work to reconnect deprivation and council funding that we are delivering today, and I pay massive tribute to him. He asked whether we might go further to persuade our Treasury colleagues to invest in local government. I think that the best way to do that—I will welcome his support in this—is to show the results that councils get when they are properly invested in. We see that nowhere more than in his home city region of Greater Manchester and his council of Oldham, which show time and again that they provide value for money and they are growing our economy.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  It is extremely important that we properly fund authorities in Cheshire to help support those communities. I can confirm that that is what we are doing today, with significant increases in spending power for those authorities. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend and colleagues across the county to ensure that we do as he says and get social care back on a firmer footing as we move forward through the years.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Lady for her question; she values the prudence and good decision making of local authorities. At their best, that is what we see and it is what I hope to achieve through the local government reorganisation process.