Meeting of the Parliament 05 February 2020
Not just now.
When you control the purse strings, you control your destiny. The sooner that we in Parliament learn that, the stronger our communities will be as a result.
The Liberal Democrats are unable to support the bill. At some point, we have to make a stand over bills that just tinker with the system rather than deliver the radical change that we want. The bill has made a mistake on the principle behind the independent schools issue. Of course there are arguments about the merits of independent schools—I do not wish to get into that—but I worry about us interfering with the operation of OSCR, which should be able to make the judgment as to whether an organisation is a charity or not. That should be the criterion on which we should view all charities. We are creating two tiers of charities, which is regrettable, and I think that, secretly, the minister probably believes that too.
We need bigger reforms. We are taking part in cross-party local government finance reform discussions on council tax reform, and I hope that the Government will make substantial proposals for that so that we can agree a constructive way forward. We have suggested a land value taxation system, which could be used right across local government finance. That will be our contribution to that debate.
However, a commitment is being made today on the fiscal framework for councils, and I hope that it is not another false dawn. Councils have been promised reforms repeatedly, as Andy Wightman pointed out earlier, and they have not been delivered. I hope, therefore, that something positive comes out of the bill, but I am not optimistic.