Greater London Authority Bill

I, too, start by thanking Ministers and the Labour Whip for the efficient manner in which matters have proceeded. We have had an entertaining, well-informed and reasonably non-partisan debate. There has been broad agreement on much that is in the Bill, whether climate change or health inequalities. The hon. Member for Regent's Park and Kensington, North (Ms Buck) succeeding in uniting all parties against her and the Mayor’s proposal on waste confirmation hearings. On the London housing strategy, there was agreement between Liberal Democrat Members and the Government, in that it would be much more appropriate for many of the decisions currently taken by central Government to be taken by the Mayor. We are not trying to oppose devolutionary measures, although some will attempt to portray the way in which we are about to vote as being a vote against devolution. In the debates that took place eight or nine years ago, when my hon. Friend the Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) led for my party on these matters, it was clear that we supported the devolutionary proposals; in fact, we wanted the Government to go further. It is because we support devolution that we will join the official Opposition in voting against the Bill—specifically, because of our concern about two issues. The first of those is the budget, which we debated at length today and in Committee. The Minister is on the record as saying that the current arrangements are tried and tested. That may be so, but I am afraid that they have failed the test, hence the need to ensure that a simple majority of assembly members support the Mayor’s budget for it to be carried. Everyone outside this place will understand that; only people here, particularly Labour Members, fail to appreciate why normal members of the public find it hard to understand why it is appropriate to require a two-thirds majority of assembly members to block the Mayor’s budget. An equally important issue is that of planning. When the Minister opened the debate, she had the honesty to say that although the Mayor intervenes in only a relatively small number of planning applications, they are, by definition, the largest and the most controversial.