Extracts from Commons debate on Local Government Finance (England) - Feb 10
Thursday, 11 February 2021 07:59
Steve Reed (Croydon North) (Lab/Co-op):...The chairman of Clipper
Logistics donated £725,000 to the Conservative party. He was
rewarded with a £1.3 million contract to set up an Amazon-style PPE
distribution network. Instead of the next-day delivery service that
care workers were promised, they had to wait so long to receive any
PPE at all that town halls had to pay to go out and find their own.
Then there is Randox, which pays the Conservative right hon. Member
for North Shropshire (Mr...Request free
trial
(Croydon
North) (Lab/Co-op):...The chairman of Clipper Logistics
donated £725,000 to the Conservative party. He was rewarded with a
£1.3 million contract to set up an Amazon-style
PPE distribution network. Instead of the next-day delivery service
that care workers were promised, they had to wait so long to
receive any PPE at all that town halls had to pay to go out and
find their own. Then there is Randox, which pays the Conservative
right hon. Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson) handsomely to
act as an adviser. The Government gave Randox a contract worth half
a billion pounds last year to provide covid tests, but they were so
defective that 750,000 had to be recalled...
(Windsor)
(Con):...Business rates are a challenge. It is good that a
large proportion of the rates is retained locally, to keep down
council tax, serve residents and ensure that businesses and the
local authority can thrive. However, it is a challenge,
particularly in the pandemic, because we do not know how much of
the business rates or the commercial rents to the local authority
will survive. It is important that we look at business rates, to
ensure in particular that if retail is suffering on the high
street, we redress the balance, potentially by increasing rates on
the out-of-town warehouses of Amazon and other big online
retailers. Otherwise, wonderful department stores such as Daniel of
Windsor will go out of business, because people use them as a shop
front to view products but then go and buy them online, enjoying
the benefits of lower business rates out of town centres...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
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