Debate on the Address

My Lords, in making my maiden speech, I start by paying tribute to the Lord Bishop Campbell Hone of Wakefield, who was a Member of your Lordships' House in the 1940s and my grandfather. He was an inspiring example to everyone who knew him and an enduring example to myself. I feel a little bemused to be standing here, as I come with few qualifications except for a strong belief in democracy, an interest in all environmental matters, a passionate belief in the Kentish countryside and a belief in freedom, independence, responsibility, the law and social justice, and an admiration for all those who work at the front line of public services. I deeply appreciate the kindness and courtesy and the warm welcome that I have received here. I hesitate as a new Member of the House to comment in any way on Lords reform. Because of my belief in democracy and because I share with so many people at the grass roots an admiration for the workings of your Lordships' House and its value to the democratic processes, I am deeply honoured to be here. At the same time, I hope that any reform will base itself on the value of democratic processes and not on any more transient priorities. Yesterday I listened to the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Giddens. I have a confession to make in that I read his book The Third Way not once but twice, as I was simply trying to find out whether there was a credible ideology behind new Labour. If I disclosed what I felt on my second reading it would either show my own lack of understanding or, perhaps, be discourteous to the noble Lord, Lord Giddens. But I was very interested in something that he said yesterday when he drew our attention to not only unemployment but the number of people who are in employment. After the luxury of a decade of a strong economy, some 7.5 million people are classified by the Government as economically inactive—aged between 16 and 65. In my own county of Kent, 18,000 people are unemployed but 150,000 are economically inactive. We need to do more to help the majority of those people who often through no fault of their own find themselves trapped in welfare dependency on the state. We need to help them through carefully supported steps into employment and into more independent and fulfilling lives. I welcome the fact that there is a welfare Bill. I very much admired President Clinton’s welfare Bill in the United States in the mid-1990s and I feel that we need something with that depth and courage, as it did so much to help the local economies and social fabric of the United States. I have an interest in local government issues and very much welcome the fact that there is to be a Local Government Bill. What are the ambitions for reform and what is the state of local government and local democracy today? I believe that the ambitions for reform are well known and shared across the political divide. Broadly, there are four: first, there is the ambition and desire to improve the quality, value, choice and personalisation of public services, to widen opportunity and access, and ensure better customer care and public satisfaction; secondly, to enhance local government’s leadership role, and what Sir Michael Lyons has called the ““placemaking”” role; thirdly, simply to make better use of the public’s taxes; and fourthly, to bring governance closer to the people we represent. It is also universally recognised across the political divide that today the United Kingdom is simply unique in the high degree of central control that our Government exert across public services and local government in England. That is well understood but it has not always been so. In the 19th century, local government was often the pioneer of innovation. One thinks of the great civic corporations, such as Birmingham. People like Joseph Chamberlain were the innovators of reform; industrial, social and economic. They brought in new industry, pioneered running water, gas and electricity, and brought in wider social reform—the first universal education and healthcare. They were able to do that simply because they had the power. When we look at the United Kingdom, we see today that the burden of bureaucracy—the array of plans, guidance and inspections, the 1,000 performance indicators and targets—has simply wasted the public’s money. At the same time, it has stifled the innovation, the enterprise and the local experience of frontline staff. It has denied local people, as local councillors, the chance to make local choices. In doing so, it has eroded local democracy itself. What, then, do we wish to see in the Bill? We wish to see a Bill that strengthens local leadership and one that drives on both a deregulatory and a devolutionary line. Deregulation is needed to deregulate the central control mechanisms. In his report to the Treasury, Sir Peter Gershon said that the cost within Whitehall of central regulation of the wider public sector was some £8 billion, while regulating local government cost £2.5 billion, which did not even include the cost of compliance by local authorities. Some important steps were set out in the White Paper, but we need to ensure the commitment of all the spending departments across the Government. Indeed, we need to broaden them out to some of the areas that so far have not been reached. It is perhaps the devolutionary aspect that is most important. I was encouraged during the summer by the clear commitments to devolution by the Prime Minister, Ruth Kelly and the Chancellor, but the White Paper was not strong on the devolutionary side. I welcomed the Treasury’s report, Devolved decision making, published in March. One of the aspects of that report is that it compared cities in England with cities in Europe. It said that the great English cities—Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Newcastle—today have only half the prosperity, half the GDP per head, of the great cities of Europe. It went on to conclude that the cities in Europe have far stronger devolved political autonomy. I believe that that political autonomy is essential here if we are to drive greater economic prosperity. We have to understand that we cannot run the country as if one size fits all. Every city, town and county is unique. They all have different challenges, and all require their own unique local solutions. Therefore, that devolution of national and regional powers to local authorities in transport, planning, skills, welfare and economic development is essential. It can be said that devolution plays a part in getting closer to people on the ground. I will conclude with that challenge. From where I sit in local government, the need to strengthen local democracy is a major issue. There are simply too many people out there who feel disaffected by the political process and who feel that politicians of all parties, local and national, are not relevant to their lives. There is an erosion of trust and a cynicism about seemingly unreachable and remote governance delivering solutions. Some people say there is public apathy. I do not believe that is the case. People care deeply about the national issues of climate change or Iraq, and about local issues, such as their local school or hospital, their road, or whether their gran or child can walk safely to the shop on the corner of the street. But they are frustrated by their ability to influence the political processes. Local government has to rise to the challenge of a more devolved system. We have to give people greater power and influence over their lives and over the future of the places where they live.