Angela Rayner vows to finish ‘Dragons’ Den’-style contest for native authorities money
Angela Rayner has vowed to finish the “Dragons’ Den” contest for native authorities money and herald long run funding for struggling councils.
The Shadow Levelling Up Secretary stated serving to cash-strapped city halls is a precedence for a Labour Government as she addressed a Mirror/InHouse Communications occasion on the occasion’s preparations for energy. Asked about her key priorities, she stated: “To end this Dragons’ Den approach to bidding as I think that takes a lot of time…. I think local government needs that stability but I think we also need to stop this idea that it’s some competitive process to get little pots of money here and there because that’s not really helping.
“We want to actually repair their native time period funding but in addition ensure that they have the bottom to allow them to ship the core issues that they want. So that is a precedence.”
She stated Labour gained’t decide to freezing council tax this yr – as Keir Starmer did in 2023 – as the party must show it would be responsible with public cash. Asked if Labour would commit to that again, Ms Rayner said: “If we won’t establish the place the cash is coming from, we won’t do it… we’re going to should look what the books are once we get there.”
She added: “The concept that we’d have an enormous pot of cash to do every little thing, it isn’t going to be like that.” But she said tackling things like homelessness and temporary accommodation would ease the burden on town hall finances.
Luke Murphy, of the IPPR thinktank, told the event that it was “utterly ridiculous” that council tax was still based on 1991 valuations – and said there were lots of inconsistencies in the system. But Ms Rayner said it wasn’t “my primary precedence” and said reforms to business rates could help to fix regional inequalities.
On housing, Ms Rayner joked that she was “too outdated” to know what a YIMBY – ‘Yes in my back yard’ – was but agreed there was a huge problem with the supply of housing. She said: “There are far too many individuals on the ready lists for housing in the mean time and that’s the drawback. This concept that, ‘oh we will choose veterans, oh we will choose native individuals, of, we will choose key employees. The actuality is that the provision is the issue., not people who find themselves attempting to get these homes.”
She added: “Gimmicks that look shiny and widespread, I feel we have had sufficient of that. “Get Brexit Done”, “oven ready” – this stuff have all been confirmed to not ship.” Ms Rayner said the Government’s plans to offer social homes to Brits were a “fallacy”. “Unless they take care of the problems across the provide aspect, nobody is getting these homes so do not pitch one in opposition to the opposite.”
Labour’s Deputy Leader said she was confident she could deliver on the party’s promise to build 1.5million homes over the next Parliament, including a fresh wave of new towns. Asked why she felt she would succeed where other Secretary of States had failed., she quipped: “Because I’m a woman.”
