"Control Freak" Ministers Water Down New Openness Laws

Labour Government censors breakdown of Government spending in Waveney.

Peter Aldous, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Waveney has expressed disappointment at the Labour Government's decision to water down new laws which would tell people how much taxpayer's money is spent in Waveney and in every other part of the country.

A new law, called the Sustainable Communities Act 2007, and introduced by Conservatives, was passed by Parliament with cross community support from local and national organisations. It could turn politics upside down - by giving local people the power to decide how their cash is spent in their area.

For the first time in British political history, the Government will publish a regular breakdown of the amount of public money spent in each community, and explain how much of that spending is controlled by local people and how much by Whitehall.

More and more taxpayer's money is being spent by unelected quangos. In Gordon Brown's first year in office, spending on so called "executive non-departmental bodies" rose by 16%. The Taxpayer's Alliance has estimated that £64 billion a year is now spent by unelected quangos – equivalent to £2550 for every household in Waveney. The need for proper transparency in public spending is thus urgent.

However in a consultation paper recently issued by the Government, the plans for reports on local spending under the new Act have been severely watered down. Only spending information by Councils and NHS Primary Care Trusts will be published – and this is already in the public domain.

The Conservatives are pledging to put this right and will:

• Use the Sustainable Communities Act to publish detailed information on local spending by central and local government bodies, and devolve more funding down to local communities.
• Require Councils and Whitehall bodies to publish online detailed figures on how they spend our money, so the press and public can scrutinise waste and inefficiency properly.

Peter Aldous said “It is completely unacceptable that control freak ministers should try to water down these ground breaking new openness laws. Labour are obsessed with trying to control everything from Whitehall. It speaks volumes that they want to stop local people finding out the truth that East Anglia gets a raw deal from their Government”.

Independent research by Oxford Economics has revealed that £6.5 billion of taxpayer’s hard earned cash in East Anglia is being spent elsewhere in the country.

Peter Aldous added: “Enough is enough. We can’t continue to be used as a cash cow for the rest of the country. There is a desperate need for investment in the roads in Waveney, whether it be the third crossing, the northern spine road, the Beccles southern bypass or the Bungay bypass. Money raised here should be spent here on projects that will have a lasting economic benefit”.

“The Sustainable Communities Act can give local people a far greater say on how their money is spent in Waveney and Suffolk. The Conservatives will open up the books and give power and funding so that local people can adopt local solutions”.