Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, I briefly join in the general welcome for this proposal and I have declared previously that, in another life, I am an executive councillor on a London borough council. This proposal is in the best interests of all concerned. I hope, indeed, that once this matter is finally settled and the Bill becomes enacted that the Mayor will then stop referring to this proposal as an unambitious talking-shop, and that he will engage with it as enthusiastically as the Minister has rightly hoped. I want to address briefly the question of who chairs the board. The Minister has expressed the hope that the Mayor of London will do so. If he wishes to do so, London Councils has said that that is entirely acceptable to it, as I am sure it would be to all. However, the Mayor already chairs Transport for London and will shortly, if he so wishes, have the power to chair the Metropolitan Police Authority. Those in themselves are two massive commitments in time and responsibility. It may well be that the Mayor determines that he cannot make the time or the priority to chair the board in person; we should not at all regard that as a lack of interest or commitment but rather, I suggest, as a realistic appraisal of how he spends his time. In that event, whoever chairs the board—if it is not to be the Mayor—needs to be acceptable to the members of the board, and to those who appoint them. Therefore, in the event that the Mayor is not chairing it, it will be of some significance that agreement is reached between London Councils and the Mayor of London as to who that chair should be. That chair, nominated in that way, will thus be much more influential and acceptable to the board, to London Councils and to the London boroughs as a whole.