Local Government Bill [HL]

My Lords, my recollection is that the Merits Committee said that it did not come to a definitive view on the arguments relating to unitary authority status for either Norwich or Exeter. It is not the role of the Merits Committee to make that view. The Merits Committee put certain issues in front of the House for the House to decide whether it wished to take them into consideration. There was no attempted imposition by the previous Government. The imposition is coming from the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition Government, who, contrary to the overwhelming wishes of locally elected representatives from different parties, have decided to ride roughshod over their views and deny them what cities of comparable size in other parts of the country already have—unitary authority status. That is what the coalition Government call "freedom, fairness and responsibility". I hope that the Government will think again and move away from the "central government knows best and will decide" stance that they are adopting on this issue and on a number of other issues in the short time that they have been in office. If the coalition Government are not prepared to think again, Norwich and Exeter will, unfortunately, have to be patient for a little longer, but at least the cross-party support for a unitary authority in those two fine cities will know where support can be found—and it is not on the Benches opposite.