District Councils — House of Lords, 2017-10-19
Topic: Housing
Diana Margaret Maddock (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend for introducing this timely debate on district councils. I begin by declaring my interests. I am a vice-president of the Local Government Association, the vice-president of a fuel poverty charity, National Energy Action, and I am president of the National Home Improvement Council I shall confine my remarks to just a few of the areas that district councils are responsible for and shall also reflect on where district councils have been completely abolished in the north-east of England As my noble friend said, there are now just over 200 district councils—considerably fewer than when I joined this House over 20 years ago. Where they remain, they are responsible for all matters pertaining to housing in their areas. It is generally agreed that we have a housing crisis, so restricting finance and financial freedoms to district councils at this time seems particularly perverse Along with their responsibility to ensure sufficient housing in their areas, district councils are responsible for planning and building control. Again, it seems perverse not to recognise that this is an essential part of providing homes, but at the moment district councils are not able to cover the cost of these services—indeed, they are prevented from doing so As we have already heard from my noble friend, planning departments are severely underresourced. In fact, local taxpayers are subsidising planning services by about 30% because the planning fees set nationally do not cover the full costs. When will the Government progress their commitment to allow councils to increase planning fees by 20%? Indeed, there are calls for them to rise by more than that and to increase by 40%. In recent days—my noble friend referred to this—the problems of bed-blocking have once again been in the news. District councils do not run social services but they are responsible for social housing. Indeed, at one time, there were numerous sheltered and extra-sheltered housing schemes run by local authorities, with on-site wardens and other help. However, cuts in local authorities’ budgets and their ability to raise funds have severely reduced the number of such good schemes. Some of the housing associations have taken this up. My own aunt lived in one such extra-care scheme in West Sussex One of the reasons many elderly people cannot get back to their homes after recovering from illness is that they need home adaptations: things like flat-floored showers, wider doors and other access facilities. These, of course, are the responsibility of the district councils. I am grateful to the District Councils’ Network for some figures about the value for money it can provide in this area and how it can help the National Health Service: "By adapting 100,000 homes to meet the needs of older people, districts could save the NHS £69 for every pound spent … By improving 100,000 homes to protect older people from the cold weather districts could save the NHS £34.19 for every pound spent" The average cost to the state of a fractured hip is a bit over £28,500. This is nearly five times the average cost of a major housing adaptation—which runs at about £6,000—and 100 times the cost of fitting hand and grab rails to prevent falls Another important area—it is dear to my heart—where district councils have duties pertains to energy efficiency in the homes in their areas. They still have a duty under the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995— which I am proud to have seen through in another place rather a long time ago now—to collect information about the energy efficiency of homes in their areas and to suggest solutions for improvement. However, I regret to say that successive Governments have failed to enforce these requirements or to use this Act to its full potential in any way Councils do have powers, however, to enforce minimum housing standards relating to excess cold. There are several pieces of legislation on this matter, but it is often the case that local authorities are not really aware of some of the things that they can do. Once again, enforcing regulations in these areas falls to overstretched environmental health and trading standards departments. Will the Government commit to looking at how they can allow councils to get more funding—particularly by returning the fines that councils levy when they find problems—to support more proactive work? On several fronts, failure to fund district councils properly goes against the other aims that we have heard from the Government, many of which we agree with: more homes, quicker discharge from hospital and fewer cold homes I would now like to spend a few minutes reflecting on the reduction in the number of district councils. Central government has consistently driven an agenda of cutting the cost of local government through "efficiency savings". Across the board—and my noble friend referred to this—local government has risen very well to this challenge; indeed, there is evidence that it has risen more successfully to the challenge than central government departments. This has happened despite often being given new responsibilities with poor funding that dries up after a few years Different Governments have attempted local government reorganisations as part of efficiency savings, but at what cost to local democracy and to services? Nowhere has this been more obvious to me than in my home area of Northumberland. In 1997, there were six district councils and one county council, with 239 district councillors and 67 county councillors. In 2009, we had a change imposed on us by the then Labour Government, which reduced us to 67 councillors to cover the whole of Northumberland. This is an area 50 miles north to south and, in the south, at least another 50 miles east to west. To travel from Berwick to Hexham is 100 miles. This year, we had the council count in Hexham and people were running about Northumberland in the middle of the night to get there There was a consultation and a vote on how local people wanted the reorganisation to happen. The people voted in favour of two districts, one in the north and one in the south—they recognised that we needed fewer small councils. However, this was ignored, and the Labour Government gave us one, with just 67 councillors. The effect on local democracy and the control of local services has been devastating. It might have been mitigated to some extent if town and parish councils had been given more powers As the whole area was not parished, new councils had to be set up, in particular in the south-east but also in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, where I live. However, the development of the town council does not make happy reading. There were town clerk resignations, councillor resignations, inquiries about bullying and the most appalling behaviour by some councillors on social media. Many people have been completely put off wanting to be councillors, given all these things working against them. It is very difficult to find people who are able to take on the role of county councillor, in particular in Berwick, where you have to travel 50 or 70 miles to meetings. That is pretty difficult to take on if you work full-time or run a business Engagement by the community, particularly with council services, is also extremely difficult. The development of electronic communication has helped but in my part of the world we have a predominantly older population who tend not to engage with modern technology. Earlier this week, when the House was talking about Islamophobia, there was much discussion about community cohesion. Changes such as I have outlined do not help communities to engage with those who provide the local services and with each other As we heard from my noble friend, the ongoing financial constraints for district councils clearly work against many of the stated aims of the Government: building more homes, ensuring new and existing homes are more energy efficient, providing housing with care for our ageing population, and adapting homes for our ageing population. These last two would definitely help alleviate bed-blocking. Will the Minister explain why the Government seem unable to have policies and actions that work together, rather than against each other, in achieving their aims? Why have the Government failed to understand the role of district councils in aiding their agenda by providing good local community services? Why do they continue to reduce the finance to district councils, which provide very good services in line with government objectives? I look forward to hearing from the Minister on these very important matters.