Greater London Authority Bill

I thought for one moment, when the Under-Secretary pointed skywards, that he had heard news that I had not, but I am glad to say that I could absolutely deny news of that sort. It was important that proceedings on the Bill were conducted with good humour because the Bill is of enormous importance, as the Minister rightly said. The governance of London is of great importance. I must say that I disagree with her when she says that the greatness of London is a reflection of the works of the Mayor. I think that London’s great success currently has more to do with Sarbanes-Oxley than the Mayor of London. However, we will take that as read and we will move on to consider the Bill as it is on Third Reading, having been amended in Committee and on Report. I am afraid that I have to give the Minister bad news: we will continue to oppose the proposals in the Bill, fundamentally because they take power away from the boroughs and give it to the Mayor. The Minister may well say that the Bill is a devolutionary measure, but that is not how it seems to my local residents, who feel that they are losing control over their own communities. They particularly object to the planning and housing powers, although I note that the Minister became more conciliatory, doubtless because of the superb speech by the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford) on precisely what ““strategic”” means. He drove a coach and horses through the draft statutory instrument, and I was relieved to learn that the Minister is prepared to take some of his points on board. However, the fundamental point remains that, under the Bill and the statutory instrument as drafted, local people will lose control of their environment. It is exceedingly unfair, to put it politely, of the Minister to imply that people in London are not concerned about providing the housing that London needs. The reality is that it is they who know their communities, not the Mayor of London. It is they who can decide how many houses they wish to have built, and they who can decide what sort of community they live in. If those communities are destroyed because of increased density or inappropriate developments, the problem of deprivation will just move to other parts of London. That is not the proper way to encourage London to be a healthy city, and if it is to be successful as an international city, it has to be at peace with itself. I do not want to go through the details of the Bill, but the Minister will remember that we are still unhappy about the budget. It is nonsensical that the Mayor can get his budget agreed to with the support of only a quarter of assembly members. On achieving a majority for the budget, the conjunction of proportional representation and first past the post has led to a completely nonsensical situation when it comes to providing any form of effective scrutiny of the budget. We still have concerns serious concerns about the governance of Transport for London, and I am sure that the issue will be raised in debates in another place. We supported the Government’s proposals on waste collection, but that does not mean that we do not want improvements in the effectiveness of waste disposal by the boroughs. We will press the Government hard to build on developments in science and technology to ensure that London does its share of waste disposal and recycling. I urge my right hon. and hon. Friends to vote against the Bill, because giving more powers to the Mayor will not enhance the governance of London and will not deliver a city that continues to benefit from the effectiveness of the City of London.