Greater London Authority Bill

moved Amendment No. 21: 21: Before Clause 12, insert the following new Clause— ““Budget (1) Schedule 6 to the GLA Act 1999 (procedure for determining the Authority’s consolidated budget requirement) is amended as follows. (2) Omit paragraph 8(4).”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, here we come to the always interesting subject of the Mayor’s budget. The amendment would omit from the original GLA Act a provision that requires any amendment to the Mayor’s budget to be passed by a two-thirds majority. In effect, that means that the Mayor’s budget may be approved by one-third of Assembly Members. One of the few powers that most people believe the Assembly to have is power over the Mayor’s budget. In fact, that power is very limited, even if it were to be implemented, but it has proved thus far incapable of implementation. Each year in recent years, the Mayor’s budget has been passed by nine votes in favour and 16 votes against, with the Mayor sitting in the gallery shouting, ““Carried””. That is little short of a farce. Let me put some numbers on this. The Mayor’s budget is in the region of £10 billion a year. That sum is approved each year by no more than nine Assembly Members. Were this amendment to be agreed to, the Mayor’s budget would have to be approved, or amended, on a simple majority; that is, 13 Assembly Members, which is an addition—to state the obvious—of four Assembly Members. That is not a big change in itself but it would be a huge change in principle. It is hard to think of anywhere where a budget of £10 billion that covers policing, transport, the fire authority, development and the authority itself is simply approved on the say-so of nine members, with a majority always voting against. I understand that the Government wish to see what they call a strong Mayor; I am sure that we will hear that when the Minister replies. Much of this hinges on a definition of exactly what is a strong Mayor. Is a strong person someone who can simply impose their will regardless of the interests or wishes of a greater number, or is strength defined by those who are able to command majority support? My view is that the latter is very much the case; strength comes not from what someone else once described as elective dictatorship but from winning, persuading and argument. Probably an even more important change, were the Mayor required to obtain a simple majority for his budget, would be in the whole approach to the budget-making process. At the moment, the Mayor simply has to line up nine Assembly Members—currently the seven Labour Members and two Green Members, who simply submit their shopping list to the Mayor; no doubt they discuss it and agreement is reached. If the Mayor had to reach a simple majority, he would have to deal with the Assembly in the budget-making process and, equally important, the Assembly would have to deal with the Mayor and put forward positive proposals for what it did and did not want in the budget. Having just four more votes would make a huge and fundamental difference to the way in which the whole budget process works—and it is a large budget with huge effects on Londoners. This is not just a simple amendment about numbers; it is not just a simple amendment about giving the Assembly some real power. It is a measure that, if exercised properly—I believe that it would be—would change the budget process from, frankly, a rather negative process and almost a farce into a much more positive relationship and even a co-operative arrangement between Mayor and Assembly. That must surely be in the interests of the majority of Londoners and would in itself produce in the end a better budget that better reflected the needs and aspirations of all Londoners rather than simply the wishes of one—albeit powerful and elected—person who is able to impose his or her will. For those reasons, the amendment is important. It would strengthen the checks and balances that we all believe are necessary to hold an elected Mayor to account and it would change the relationship in a much more positive way than has existed heretofore. I beg to move.