Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

My Lords, the amendment starts a long group to which I shall speak, but the point is relatively short. I have two amendments in this group. They may seem inconsistent, but they reflect that we have in principle objections to the visions regarding economic prosperity boards. If they are to stay, the amendments would make them less unpalatable. The order in which the amendments are taken may seem to go against what we seek to achieve, but it would not have won the sympathy of the House if I had sought to table something like, "Before Clause 85, Clauses 85 to 117 shall not apply". I did not attempt to do that. Your Lordships will be familiar with committees and boards where one has a vote, a debate, and then a vote on an amendment to the proposition and even if the amendment is accepted the amended proposition, not commending itself may be voted on as well. As it perhaps a little unusual in this House I thought that I should preface my remarks in that way. We object to economic prosperity boards and combined authorities because what is proposed involves the transfer of local authority functions to new bodies that may not consist wholly of elected representatives and will not consist of people directly elected for the particular task. The Bill has at many points highlighted how we differ from the Government on our views of what representative democracy is. Here we will have the Secretary of State making an order. I appreciate that if there is to be a transfer of local authority functions it needs an order—that shows how serious the matter is—to establish a body with a majority of it appointed from councils, or, to put it another way, a minority who will not be elected. Who will those people be? We do not suggest that councillors have a monopoly of wisdom on those matters—far from it. Many people have experience to offer but there are also many ways in which to involve those people without creating a new organisation of which they will become board members. The principle of elections in the conduct of local authority functions is important. Those councillors who are members will not have been elected directly for the task. I see some drawbacks in that situation in that whereas in some economic prosperity boards the councillors may see the EPB as their prime activity and priority, in others it will be something that has to be dealt with and not a priority. The second concern is that funding will go to the new bodies and it would be extraordinary if that were not to be at the expense of direct local authority funding. Local authorities will be told that that is where the money is going and so they should sign up to the EPBs. I have not caught up with the detail of the Budget announcements today, but I was not surprised to hear the noble Lord, Lord Smith, refer earlier this afternoon to the arrangements for Greater Manchester. That is a Budget announcement. We have a Bill to deal with and we must address the Bill, not what the Government are doing outside the legislative framework. We have been told—my amendments are an attempt to write the subject into the Bill, because it is not there—that all of this is voluntary. Even if that is so technically, the facts will be different. We have referred at earlier stages of the Bill to the likely—forgive the pun—peer pressure from some authorities on other authorities that are reluctant to join in and sign up to an EPB. I have referred to the likely arrangements over funding. It is all very well to say that membership may be voluntary, but once an authority is a member, how is it to cease being a member in the real world? Furthermore, it is most unclear what the remit of EPBs will be in the future. We will be content to see organic growth after clearer debate about their role. Jobcentre Plus functions and benefits functions have both been floated as possibilities. Partnerships succeed when the partners buy in and have a hand in the design of the structure. These proposals seem to have been designed without full involvement. Councillors from district councils to whom I have spoken over the past few weeks have been unaware of the proposals. Understandably, they have made comments about the Government fiddling with structures and processes in areas that they do not understand rather than supporting outcomes from existing structures or boosting existing structures. I therefore suggested privately to Ministers that the place for all of this would be in the draft Community Empowerment Bill, whose arrival seems not yet to have been signalled, but which we have been told is in the programme. That draft Bill, which would be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny, could take evidence and in the best way of scrutiny have what are in effect round-table discussions about the scope and functioning of EPBs. That would also provide an opportunity to assess whether multi-area agreements, which are already possible, have shortcomings and whether there are things that should be put on a statutory basis within the EPB proposals. In short, we object to the transfer of local authority functions away from those who are elected. We do not think that the Government have yet taken with them local authorities outside the cities for which EPBs seem to have been designed. Our Amendment 168A would make it explicit that this would be voluntary and voluntary for all. Most of our other amendments in the group would delete the proposals for EPBs entirely, which is our preference. There are other amendments in the group. Amendment 168B, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, makes the same underlying point about EPBs needing to be voluntary. I have expressed some scepticism as to whether they can truly be voluntary, although I am curious about the use of the term "reaffirmed" by local authorities, because I cannot see that the arrangements will be affirmed in the first place. The Government have tabled amendments to Clause 95. Perhaps on a slightly more positive note, I will welcome those. I beg to move.