division_name: Local Government Finance
motion: <p class="indent" pid="a1067.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That the Report on Local Government Finance (England) 2017-18 (HC 985), which was laid before this House on <phrase class="date" code="2017-02-20">20 February</phrase>, be approved.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1067.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That the Report on Referendums Relating to Council Tax Increases (Principles) (England) 2017-18 (HC 983), which was laid before this House on <phrase class="date" code="2017-02-20">20 February</phrase>, be approved.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1067.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">That the Report on Referendums Relating to Council Tax Increases (Alternative Notional Amounts) (England) 2017-18 (HC 984), which was laid before this House on <phrase class="date" code="2017-02-20">20 February</phrase>, be approved.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1078.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;relentless campaign of distortions and half-truths&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1081.3/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;To continue, it is really looking like we are cutting into the bones of services that matter to people&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1083.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;In the last spending review, the Government allocated an additional &#163;3.5 billion a year by 2020 to adult social care.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2017-01-16">16 January</phrase> 2017; Vol. 619, c. 664.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1086.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;hardly any time to plan for the reductions that will be needed&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1090.3/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;to be made by those operating outside a department&#8217;s boundary or with a different mandate, without necessarily understanding their effect.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1090.3/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;during this progressive reduction in funding, I have not seen any evidence-based effort to reconcile funding to local needs. In my view, the policy objectives for local government and the local government statutory duties have not been properly weighted against potential efficiency savings.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1090.3/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Besides the direct effect on care service users, this reduction has a deleterious effect on the NHS... Costs are effectively being shunted from one part of the connected system to another.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1090.3/14" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Central savings may have been secured, but significant damage has been done.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1105.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;not only discriminatory, but also unsustainable for rural local authorities&#8221;?</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a1107.3/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="a1112.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="a1112.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 269, Noes 158.</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="a1112.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">Votes cast by Members for constituencies in England:<br/>Ayes 253, Noes 141.</p>