Greater London Authority Bill

I, too, shall endeavour to be brief. To my mind, the Bill is disappointing. I regret having to say that because, as the Minister knows, I have been involved in London politics for a long time. We had an opportunity to enhance greatly the delivery of services for residents of London, but, in a number of ways, the Government have missed it. First, the Government have not been bold enough at the strategic level. They have failed to achieve optimum accountability and transparency in terms of the delivery of services in the skills sector and in health. An enormous democratic deficit still remains in relation to health and skills in London, which the Government have not dealt with. Secondly, the Government have remained wedded to a national template for the Government office for London, but that is not necessary. If there is a devolved system in London, it is not necessary for the Government office to take the same form as those elsewhere that currently administer some 30 schemes, worth many millions of pounds. I say that with no personal disrespect to the Minister, but the fact is that we have devolution, so we should follow its logic through and hand more powers from central Government down to Londoners, whether it be to the Mayor, the functional bodies or, indeed, in some cases, the London boroughs. The Government have, I am afraid, ducked that issue. The Bill fails at the strategic level and, to make it worse, instead of giving the Mayor more strategic power, it takes power away from the boroughs in respect of important matters such as planning. My constituents in Bromley, an outer London borough, already find that the Mayor seeks to impose on them a one-size-fits-all planning policy. Planning policies and planning densities that are appropriate in inner London and even in suburban town centres are not appropriate in established residential suburbs, but the Mayor seeks to drive them through regardless. The Mayor, I am afraid, has not been a good advocate for giving his own office more powers. Perhaps it is his own erratic behaviour that has caused the Government to duck following the logic of their own devolution position. If that is the case, it is regrettable. It leaves my constituents with less service delivery, which is subject to less transparency, but with more burdens placed upon them. The third failure is the lack of balance within the Greater London authority. Consider the following: ““We will create a single powerful figure in a way that is completely alien to all the normal practices of British politics… My worry has always been that we will create a post into which someone can be locked for four years with very few checks and balances.”” I suspect that the Minister is familiar with the quote, which comes from the current Mayor of London when he was a Member of the House. What he said has been proved right. The Mayor has changed his mind, of course, but he has changed it on so many things that it does not greatly surprise us. He was right the first time, which means that when the Mayor gets more powers, the London assembly should get more powers to hold him to account. It cannot be right that we will have a one-man planning authority who will deal—with respect to the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford)—not only with strategic plans but with individual applications. That is a thoroughly undesirable state of affairs on any view. It should be written into the Bill, not dependent on the concession of the Mayor, that that should not happen. The assembly should have a role before the Mayor comes to a decision. It cannot be right either that some 10 pages of the Bill are taken up with what should be the simple proposition that the assembly should be able to set its own budget. There must be a better and easier way to deal with that. Finally, the assembly should have the power to amend the Mayor’s strategies. The Deputy Prime Minister, when the original legislation was considered, recognised that the assembly should have that power, but he shied away from it before it became law. That was an error, but there is time to put it right. That would be an opportunity to rebalance the system in London advantageously. I am sorry to have to raise those points so briefly. The Minister and I are used to disappointments because we have seen so many at Upton Park recently, but in Committee he has the chance to become the Alan Curbishley of the Bill and save something from the wreckage by improving accountability and balance.