My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of Stevenage, is quite right to table this amendment to explore the area that can be included in a combined county authority. As I understand it, a combined county authority is a bit of a misnomer. Last Wednesday, the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, said in response to an amendment that a CCA could include, for instance, the unitary authority of Wiltshire and the city unitary authority of Swindon. Equally, when I asked her what would happen in Devon, she said quite clearly that the county and district authorities of Devon and the unitary authority of Plymouth would be included. These are not necessarily combined county authorities: they are unitary and county and district combined authorities—if that is determined, we hope, by the people who live there and the councillors elected to represent them.
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It is really important for us to get some clarity about how this will operate. In some parts of the Midlands, you can imagine there being concern about which parts of a county are to be included. For example, in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire there is an overlap of travel-to-work areas, and they would try to form a combined authority that would not necessarily include the whole of Nottinghamshire or Derbyshire. For example, there was certainly some movement to try to get parts of North Derbyshire included in the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. There is a lot to consider, and I hope we will get clarity from the Minister on the Government’s thinking.
I support the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of Stevenage, on the ability of just part of a two-tier authority to join if that is what is wanted. You cannot expect all the district councils necessarily to want to go with their upper-tier county authorities into a new combined county authority if that does not work for them. For instance, a historic county boundary may no longer represent the travel-to-work areas of that geographic area.
I am also pleased that the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, has tabled Amendment 99, on public consultations. The public should have a say on this issue, which will come up again in later groups. There has been too much of a top-down requirement for combined authorities, which depends on those currently in power in local areas making the decisions without proper
decision-making—more than consultation—by local people. In the end, the public will have to be asked to pay the additional taxes to support the working of the combined authority. Clause 7 simply states:
“The Secretary of State may by regulations establish … a combined county authority”.
That is not good enough. Local people, who are going to pay the additional taxes required, should have a say in what happens.
After all, the combined authorities may or may not be of benefit to local communities. They will benefit the Government, because they will be doing their will: in my view, we currently have delegation from the Government, rather than devolution to local people. For instance, in the West Yorkshire Combined Authority where I live, we have delegation of transport funding and regeneration funding, but with all the strings attached that the Government apply to funding where the decision has been made in departments or in combined authorities’ mayoral offices.
Therefore, if combined authorities do not have prior public debate and prior consultation and approval, what we get is the creation of another remote institution making decisions for local areas without direct accountability for them. Can the Minister explain what policies and proposals of combined county authorities can be questioned and challenged before final decisions are made? Currently, scrutiny arrangements in combined authorities are of the implementation and outcomes of decisions. I am keen to hear from the Minister whether the Government support the idea of pre-decision scrutiny to help to improve outcomes and involve more elected representations. In that way, more local people—or, certainly, their elected representatives—will have a say in any policies and priorities that are set out by the combined authorities. I support these two amendments and look forward to the reply.