Angela Rayner vows to end Dragons' Den-style contest for local government cash
Angela Rayner has vowed to end the “Dragons' Den” contest for local government cash and bring in longer term funding for struggling councils.
The Shadow Levelling Up Secretary said helping cash-strapped town halls is a priority for a Labour Government as she addressed a Mirror/InHouse Communications event on the party's preparations for power. Asked about her key priorities, she said: "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 need to really fix their local term funding but also make sure that they've got the base so they can deliver the core things that they need. So that's a priority."
Struggling local authorities are likely to hike council tax to the maximum 4.99% in April but Labour won’t commit to a freeze as Keir Starmer did in 2023, she said. Asked if Labour would commit to that again, Ms Rayner said: "If we can't identify where the money is coming from, we can't do it... we are going to have to look what the books are when we get there."
(Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)She added: "The idea that we would have a huge pot of money to do everything, it's not going to be like that." But she said tackling things like homelessness and temporary accommodation would ease the burden on town hall finances.
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Luke Murphy, of the IPPR thinktank, told the event that it was "completely 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 number one priority" and said reforms to business rates could help to fix regional inequalities.
On housing, Ms Rayner joked that she was "too old" 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 people on the waiting lists for housing at the moment and that is the problem. This idea that, 'oh we're going to pick veterans, oh we're going to pick local people, of, we're going to pick key workers. The reality is that the supply is the problem., not people who are trying to get those houses."
She added: "Gimmicks that look shiny and popular, I think we've had enough of that. "Get Brexit Done", "oven ready" - these things have all been proven to not deliver." Ms Rayner said the Government's plans to offer social homes to Brits were a "fallacy". "Unless they deal with the issues around the supply side, no one is getting those houses so don't pitch one against the other."
Labour is confident it can deliver on a promise to build 1.5million homes over the next Parliament, including a fresh wave of new towns, she said. Asked why she felt she would succeed where other Secretary of States had failed, she quipped: “Because I’m a woman."
Melanie Leech, Chief Executive of the British Property Federation, said there was huge interest from the private sector in investing in housebuilding. She said: "There's a massive amount of private capital out there, wanting to invest and wanting to do so that delivers stronger, healthier, more sustainable communities and delivers in particular the homes we so desperately need. But unlocking the full power of that private sector capital requires a genuine partnership between the Government, public sector and private sector."
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