Greater London Authority Bill

I am glad to be able to contribute to our debate on the Bill, and to raise the concerns of my constituents. I am pleased to follow the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey), who highlighted her concerns in a measured and carefully reasoned speech. I was disappointed by the opening performance of the Minister for Housing and Planning, and by the speech of my near neighbour, the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford), as they both spoke as technocrats, without any passion or real interest in the views of the public locally—no ““power to the people”” on the Labour Benches. My hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait), on the other hand, achieved a much better balance, as she highlighted the needs of London residents. [Interruption.] The Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, the hon. Member for Poplar and Canning Town (Jim Fitzpatrick) may laugh—the debate will degenerate if he continues on that route—but my hon. Friend highlighted concerns about planning, as well as the importance of debating London issues. As the hon. Member for Vauxhall said, the debate must be conducted on a higher plane if we wish to try to look at the matter objectively, so I was disappointed by the partisan comments of the Minister for Housing and Planning. Many people in the outer suburbs were not very happy with the original concept of the Mayor and the Greater London assembly but, as my hon. Friends have said, the caravan has moved on. Those original concerns focused on cost, bureaucracy and the number of additional staff that would be employed, and I am afraid that they have been realised. It was thought that the Mayor would not be concerned about the suburbs but with central London or zone 1. Unfortunately, that has largely come to pass. As we all accept, the Mayor and the GLA are here to stay. The Government want to move on, and give more powers and a greater remit to a regional authority. Why are those powers to be increased? Who will benefit, and what will the costs be? From my own perspective, I might ask: what have the Mayor and the GLA done for Bexley since 2000? The Mayor has not visited the area very often—I think that he has been to the borough only once in that period—and he always appears uninterested in the residents of outer London. Has Bexley benefited from the establishment of the GLA and the Mayor? We had at least one benefit—my hon. Friend who is now the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) was a superb GLA representative, who took up the issues in our area.