Communities and Local Government/Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The primary sensitivity about the proposed Greater London assembly Bill relates to planning powers and their abstraction from local boroughs. Experience in the days of the Greater London council left boroughs feeling that their ability to initiate developments locally was restricted by the need to pay cognisance to what the GLC was doing. There is a fear that we shall go through the same process under the GLA. I recognise that the Government, in their consultation on the GLA legislation, have emphasised that only a small number of the most strategically important planning decisions will come to the Mayor. They will not expect him to intervene in terms of giving positive approval—another change that is proposed—other than in those strategically important decisions and the applications considered will be only those submitted on a sub-regional basis. However, the acceptance in the consultation of the current low threshold of intervention on measurements of floor space, height and the number of houses in an application suggests that local authorities will have to deal with the Mayor at that low level of intervention. I know that the Mayor and his extremely professional planning officers take the view that they are better placed to intervene in the consideration of planning applications and to maximise the section 106 value from major applications. Indeed, some local authorities in London may not be as strong as others. I have a criticism of my local authority—Croydon—which is far too closely bound to particular developers in respect of key applications. There must, however, be an expectation that local knowledge means that local authorities are best placed to drive forward such applications. The Mayor of London has recognised that there are also issues in respect of the fact that only one person acts as a planning authority. He realises the importance of an open approach and a public process so that he can be given advice and be lobbied by people who may have concerns about an application. I very much hope to hear that the Government will give consideration to the inclusion of such openness in the legislation that comes before us at a later stage, because one Mayor’s promise may not necessarily be delivered by another. I am also concerned that in the proposed legislation it will be down to the boroughs to provide members of the public with information about anything in a planning application to which the Mayor will give consideration. That strikes me as a remote process. In the consultation, it was suggested that the Mayor should be able to call in every application for a tram stop, which seems to be a tactical consideration to allow him to pursue his desire for the west London tram scheme against the significant opposition to that proposal. In times past, I enjoyed acting as chairman of the budget committee of the London assembly and I remain concerned about the impact of the requirement for a two-thirds majority to stop the Mayor’s budget in the totality of its demands on London taxpayers. The two-thirds requirement has to be secured twice at each annual budget. Although that quixotic target was secured once, bringing together Greens, former UK Independence party members, Conservatives and Liberals in an unusual rainbow coalition, it has not been possible to sustain on a continued basis. Unfortunately, that has led to the assembly being a busted flush. My hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) said earlier that the assembly was little more than a talking shop. Certainly, the assembly has been left in a much weaker position in attempting to express its views on scrutiny issues, because such a high hurdle is set on its key power. There are, of course, many problems with a local taxation system that, in London, raises a sum equivalent to only 8 per cent. of the authority’s total spending. The gearing of 12 and a half times creates a certain remoteness, which is even greater than that seen elsewhere in local government, given the link between taxation and local accountability. I had hoped that the legislation would consider the appropriateness of the two-thirds target. I am also very interested in the way in which the GLA and the assembly have delivered over the past six years and in the ability of highly professional officers in the finance department to advise the Mayor and the assembly in running the budget process. I am certainly very supportive of Tony Travers’s idea that the assembly should have a separate budget office. Something similar is in place in New York, and such a system should be in place in London. Indeed, greater powers are given to other assemblies within a strong mayoral structure in New York, Barcelona and Berlin, where they have powers to legislate and to control budgets. I recognise that the prospective legislation will include confirmation hearings for key mayoral appointments in the assembly, but I regard that as limited consolation to the assembly. Certainly, it would be attractive, in line with local government practice, for the assembly to be able to produce a forward plan of decisions taken by the Mayor, so that those decisions could be called in. I also welcome the proposal to bring a great deal of the learning and skills process within London’s governance, but I am concerned that, with the creation of a separate London skills and employment board"““with the capital’s key business leaders””—" again, I quote from the Government’s consultation documents—the experience of those key business leaders will be as disappointing as that of those of us who have served on the sub-regional learning and skills councils in London. Perhaps that conflict is recognised in the Government’s proposal that there should be an early review of the relationship between LSCs and a skills and employment board. I have also served on the board of the London Development Agency, and there may also be a conflict between the family of LSCs or regional development agencies and the accountability to London’s governance. There is no proposal to change the role of London’s elected assembly members in influencing the Metropolitan police authority. There has been a very real lack of accountability to London’s elected representatives. The Mayor has always been able to say that such matters relate to the general governance and running of administration of the Met. Only if the Mayor decides to become the chairman of the MPA, perhaps under the new provision, will there be any accountability. The final process that is lacking from the proposed legislation relates to what will happen with European funding. Although European funding was consulted on, it does not seem to appear in the prospective legislation. Colleagues have referred to the Government office for London. After the changes in London’s governance, it will be very interesting to find out whether GOL or the GLA will end up with the larger budget. Until now, GOL has continued to dominate. Turning to the proposed local government legislation, despite all the desire for localism, the reality is that the proposals to centralise the funding that local government has secured through section 106 agreements by introducing a planning supplement tax represents nationalising yet another process in which councils have been involved. I very much welcome the approach that is being taken towards encouraging more mayors. A directly elected mayoral system has worked satisfactorily in London, even though we may not agree with the Mayor whom we have in place. However, proposals to allow councils to vote in favour of creating a mayoral system is unlikely to deliver much more—after all, councillors will not vote themselves out of office and put themselves through another election process. What would be more interesting to hear from the Government is whether a lower hurdle than the very high one that has been set to date will be set so that the public can prompt referendums. The proposals for a four-year mandate for council leaders will continue to underline the idea of the indirect election of mayoral posts. That will essentially turn many councils into electoral colleges for local government. The hon. Member for Leicester, South (Sir Peter Soulsby) gave a very incisive analysis of how many councillors go through a very long selection and election process to find themselves with what is essentially no more than a role in post hoc scrutiny of the decisions that have been taken by a small executive. I should like to make two final points. I am concerned about the idea that we should encourage the creation of parish councils in London. It is well over 120 years since we had parish councils in London. It is fair to say that Government-inspired ideas for neighbourhood and strategic partnerships in local government have worked well, but the prospect of having a third tier of local government in London strikes me as excessive. It is sufficient to continue to develop the neighbourhood partnership model, without putting in place that additional tier.