My Lords, this issue was brought before us by London Councils—I am grateful for its briefing. This is by way of a holding amendment, because of the time involved. Subject to the debate this evening, we envisage a more specific amendment on Report.
Over the past year it is reported that London government—London boroughs and the Mayor of London—have worked to develop a proposition for devolution in London. From this joint work it has emerged that further devolution will ideally require strengthened governance arrangements at the pan-London and sub-regional levels, without creating a layer of unnecessary bureaucracy. The Bill represents a welcome step towards greater devolution across the country but as yet does not provide a direct route to secure the statutory underpinning for the strengthened arrangements that are believed to be necessary for London. Therefore, London Councils firmly supports the proposed new clause, as it believes that it not only speaks directly to its concerns but provides a framework for developing robust governance arrangements in the capital that support further devolution to London at a pan-London and sub-regional level.
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London’s existing governance arrangements work well, it is suggested, with London boroughs and the mayor possessing distinct executive power but maintaining a successful strategic partnership. However, governing devolution in London will require new decision-making arrangements. In particular, over the last year it has become clear that there is a need to develop a way of harnessing the best of both tiers of governance in London to manage reformed service provision without adding unnecessary bureaucracy. As such, London Councils wants arrangements that reflect both the mayor’s and the boroughs’ needs and allow effective agreement and decision-making. In addition, any new mechanism would have oversight and authority only over areas of newly devolved responsibility. In practice, many of the responsibilities that might be devolved to London at a pan-London level would be further devolved to individual members or groups of members.
It is expected that borough partnerships will often be the preferred operational arrangement for the newly devolved responsibilities. In order to meet the Government’s tests for devolution, these partnerships would also need some form of statutory underpinning. The Bill fails to provide a direct enabling route towards the strengthened governance arrangements required to deliver further devolution to London. Specifically, it creates no provision for devolution to London government as a joint partnership between London boroughs and the mayor, and it leaves groups of boroughs unable to develop governance arrangements
robust enough to meet the Government’s tests for the delegation of public functions. Instead, London Councils wishes to explore amendments to the Bill that address two specific issues: strengthening pan-London governance and sub-regional arrangements.
In respect of the need to establish an underpinned partnership between London boroughs and the mayor, it is suggested that it would be necessary to explore a new clause that provides the Secretary of State with the power to establish a joint board between London boroughs and the Mayor of London to support further devolution to the capital. The board’s stated purpose would be to improve statutory functions relating to economic development and public functions generally within the Greater London area, and it is proposed that the board could be established only if all the boroughs, the City of London and the Mayor of London agreed. In order to support devolution, the board should be able to take on the exercise of public functions in relation to the Greater London area. However, in order to respect the existing partnership between London boroughs and the mayor, the power would be limited so that the board could not take on any function that was currently a function of the mayor, London boroughs or the City of London.
With respect to the need to provide a sufficient mechanism for devolution to groups of boroughs, it is suggested that it would be necessary to explore a second new clause that creates provision for the Secretary of State to delegate a function of a Minister of the Crown or a government department to a joint committee of London councils, subject to consultation with and agreement by the relevant councils. The new clause would largely mirror powers in the Localism Act that permit a Minister of the Crown to delegate a function to the Mayor of London but create provision for groups of boroughs to use their existing joint committees for the discharge of delegated public functions. This probing amendment provides an opportunity to test the Government’s thinking on these issues and creates a hook for further amendments potentially along the lines set out above.
The areas where it is believed that there is further scope for devolution to London are skills, employment, housing, health, crime, community safety and criminal justice, and of course business support. It is suggested that, as in Greater Manchester, a London package should include devolution to London of identified budgets to provide a genuine “common front door” via the LEP’s London business growth hub. I beg to move.