Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

We are having quite a long debate on this first amendment, but perhaps we can get some of the issues out of the way in this more general discussion. I make no apology that during the Committee and later stages of this Bill I will be using my knowledge and position as Leader of Essex County Council. I will not keep repeating that, but I shall be speaking a lot because I am on the Conservative Front Bench. And, yes, I know that some of your Lordships pay council tax in Essex. I remind people that Essex is a very large local authority. We are approaching the size of Northern Ireland and our domestic product is bigger than that of five European countries and eight states of the United States. We do not need regionalism when we have counties operating at that sort of size. Essex is a region in its own right—I want to make that statement right from the start. Therefore, we are rather disappointed to have regional Ministers appointed this week, when we would much rather—as with the general tone of the debate—devolve things. Some noble Lords might know that I have been instrumental in setting up a dining club called the Chamberlain Group, which is very much supported by three friends of local government, Nick Raynsford, David Curry and Alan Beith. We are trying, all-party-wise, to get more general support for local government. I have tried since becoming a Member of this House, and we have some good and loyal friends here today. I was interested to note at Second Reading that, while the Bill is so thick and the health bit only thin, most of the debate—almost two-thirds—was on the little health bit rather than generally on local government. That disappointed me, because we have a mammoth bit of local government. Like most of the noble Lords who have spoken today, I think that the Bill has not gone far enough. That is why I give a cautious welcome to the amendment. Personally, I am not that keen on commissions. They normally take 10 years to report and I would rather something happened more quickly. Perhaps the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, might reply with a timetable for when the commission will report, because a long commission will do no good. I would rather one Government or another do something now. I would like to give an instance of something we did in Essex, with Radio Five Live, just for localism. I am keen on that. We talk a lot about localism, but we do not do it. In a pilot project with Radio Five Live, we allocated £50,000 to two wards in the middle of Braintree for a project that the community would like. In a period of about seven weeks, the community itself came up with 10 ideas, such as projects for the scouts, a day centre for the elderly, a school and the street scene. Then there was a hustings and the community voted. Within that short time of seven weeks more people voted for a project than in this year’s local election—something like 36 or 37 per cent, rather than 29 per cent. What they voted for was interesting: an improved walk along the canal. They voted for a quality-of-life project. They did not vote for the others, they voted for a walk and for seats along the canal. The local community did that. I would love to do more, but unfortunately the Essex budget cannot give £50,000 all over the place. That was an interesting idea and we ought to pursue such ideas. Please let communities make some of their own decisions about what they would like. Do not let things always be from the top. Even in a large authority like mine, I want local people to decide what they want from the money raised through the council taxes and government resources. So, I give a cautious welcome to the amendment, because it is in the right spirit, although I am not so sure that I want a commission. I want people just to get on with it now.