My Lords, for the avoidance of doubt, I should say that, although I am speaking from the Back Benches, I have not resigned from the Front Bench, nor have I yet been removed from it.
I am grateful to the Minister for the meeting she held yesterday to explain the 50 or so amendments in this group—almost constituting a Bill in themselves. In addition to the points made by my noble friend Lord Kennedy, I would be grateful if she explained in more detail the effect of Amendment 34 on electoral arrangements. What would be covered by the order-making power? Would it extend to ward boundary changes, council size or the electoral cycle? Will the function be carried out by the Secretary of State or the Electoral Commission? If there is to be secondary legislation, will it be by affirmative resolution?
The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, has already referred to the report of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. In a spirit of consensus, no doubt, he did not quite quote the committee’s rather stringent comments about the way the Government have proceeded. Paragraph 2 of the report states:
“Amendment 36 is one of a number of amendments to clause 16 of the Bill. Clause 16 confers a power on the Secretary of State by regulations to make changes to the governance arrangements, constitution and membership, and the structural and boundary arrangements”.
Having considered the Government’s response, the committee concluded:
“We remain of the view that the powers conferred by clause 16 are inappropriate in the absence of the kinds of constraints and protections which apply to combined authorities under Part 6 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. Amendment 36, which will have the effect of weakening the consent regime under clause 16, serves only to strengthen our view in this regard”.
The report was published on 22 December. We are now half way through January and the Government have not yet responded except, by implication, to reject it by ignoring it. Perhaps the Minister will give some explanation of the Government’s position on the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee’s report.
More generally, it is necessary to ask whether the Government have thought through the implications of the impact of some of the changes the amendments in this group and the other groups may have on the existing local government structure if, for example, district councils in two-tier areas join combined authorities, as is apparently envisaged in the case of some districts in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. They may join for the purposes of participating in infrastructure schemes or economic development while remaining within their county councils for other services, for example, education or social care. What if the combined authority then seeks to take responsibility for the NHS? This is happening in Greater Manchester. My noble friend Lord Smith will no doubt enlighten us on the progress that is being made there, which will be watched with interest, not to say fascination, by others in local government.
What happens in areas where district councils depart from their county for some purposes but not for others? Would public health and child and adult services have to be transferred to the combined authority, given that Amendments 21 and 22 refer only to the consent of members of the combined authority? If so, what impact might that have on the services in what is
left of the county council? This is one of the effects of Amendment 45, which revokes the requirement for a local authority to consent to regulations revoking a transfer of functions where the revocation relates to health service functions. If not, what is the purpose of Amendment 45? Further, what, if any, are the implications for police and fire services, on which the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, briefly touched?
Moreover, given that the revenue support grant is to disappear and the entirety of business rates will henceforth accrue to local authorities, have the Government thought through the implications for areas in which districts might opt to join the neighbouring combined authority for some purposes—for example, economic development—but not others? Where would the business rates generated in those districts go? If they go in whole or in part to the district or the combined authority, is there not a risk that services to other parts of the existing county, which would have benefited from business rates in that area, will suffer a potential risk because they may not have a proportionate business rate income, actual or potential, in the rest of the county and may suffer as a result? Are these the sort of matters the Secretary of State will consider under Amendments 23 and 42? If so, what criteria are envisaged to apply?
The amendments in my name have effectively been more than adequately covered by my noble friend Lord Kennedy. The need for a consensual approach, which I think is right, was acknowledged by Ministers in what was almost a last-minute debate on the Bill in the House of Commons. However, the amendments seek only to strengthen the process under which conclusion might be reached; they do not postulate a particular outcome but emphasise the importance of seeking consensus, particularly among the communities that would be affected, not only within those districts that might seek to join in a combined authority but in the residual area of the county that may be affected by that decision.
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There are people in local government, and I am one of them, who might be accused of being paranoid about this Government’s attitude to local government, but that is because it is very difficult to avoid the conclusion after the past five and a half years that they are out to get us in so many ways. It must be asked: are these measures the first step towards a further wholesale reorganisation of local government, beginning but not necessarily ending with the disappearance of two-tier local government in the counties? Will the Government disavow any such intention and any aspirations to replace existing unitary councils by transferring their functions to an elected mayor and a single elected combined authority? I dare say that my noble friend Lady Hollis may have some views on that point, which she has made before forcefully and with her customary eloquence.
Is there any question of merging or reorganising what may be truncated counties shorn of significant population? If, to take a couple of counties at random, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were to find that a significant number of district councils had elected to join a combined authority—if that had been agreed by whatever process, including consensus—and they were left shorn of a substantial income base and a substantial population, would the temptation not then arise for the
Government to suggest that the residual parts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire should be combined into a new authority? That would be a massive and radical change.
The concept of devolution is welcome but, as has previously been made clear by noble Lords in discussing the Bill, and indeed today by my noble friend Lord Kennedy and the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, there is real concern about these and other aspects, not least the Government’s adoption of what might be called the Henry Ford approach—insisting upon having an elected mayor as a condition of the devolution deal. In this case, it is not a question of having any colour car as long as it is black; rather, you can have devolution as long as you have an elected mayor. However, there remains a major question as to whether the Government’s new model structures would be supplied with sufficient petrol in their fuel tanks.