Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I am grateful to everyone who has spoken and to the Minister for a great deal of what she has said, quite a lot of which I think will be talked about in the Committee in the next two or three weeks. She is using the right words. She said that our challenge is to let go. The purpose of the amendment was to challenge the Government to seriously let go. We do not believe that they are doing that, which I think will colour a great deal of the rest of the debate. I am grateful for the comments made by the noble Viscount, Lord Eccles, who has a long and distinguished career of support for local government, and my noble friend Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer. Ten years ago, Pendle Council looked at seriously decentralising decision-making in Pendle, at the same time involving people from parish councils and local organisations, and citizens. We looked at and then based our system heavily on the South Somerset model, and I pay tribute to the pioneering role which it took. One reason why I am not in London on a Monday is that on Monday evenings, the NAG meets in my ward. The Minister may think that that is an appropriate name for a body with which I am associated. It is the neighbourhood action group, associated with a neighbourhood management project, which comes because we are a housing market renewal pathfinder and that is how it is financed. That NAG, in an area with no more than 5,000 electors—there are probably 7,000 or 8,000 people at the very most—has an annual budget of £100,000, give or take a bit, for local schemes, grot spots and small local improvements. It effectively makes the decisions by consensus because it consists of councillors, council officers, residents, people from other local agencies, et cetera. The idea that this is in some way revolutionary is not true. To be able to do this, you must have the money to devolve to this kind of scheme. If you have not got the money because you have been capped or are having 3 per cent cashable efficiency savings every year, it is rather difficult. We can do it because of the housing market renewal pathfinder. We could not do it otherwise. Some of the schemes which have been set up, which I suspect are models for what the Government are doing in their neighbourhood management pathfinders, are there only because extra funding is being provided, and mainstreaming these things is very difficult. The noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, asked about a timetable. It seems to me that what is required is an evolutionary process. I agree with him that what we want is action now but we need a process, a system, a culture and means of delivery which is going to significantly remove controls, bonfire regulations and enhance the powers of local authorities. That cannot be done with a big bang; there has to be some process of doing it over years and I have put one forward. What I propose is much more radical than anything that appears in the Bill. It is on the agenda now. The Minister said very helpfully that what I am proposing does not go far enough. I will think about those words and come back and remind her when I am proposing more. I tabled the amendment to try to put the issue on the agenda, but the Prime Minister has done a much better job of that than I could. The Pandora’s box is open and the discussions of the concordat are going to be absolutely vital. I say to the Local Government Association, ““You now have this on the agenda. Be much bolder than you have been before. Think bold, demand bold things and challenge the Government to—in the words of the Minister—let go””. I am very grateful to the people who have taken part in this debate. Many of the themes will come back as we discuss the detailed amendments in the Bill. At this stage I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 1 agreed to. Clause 2 [Invitations and directions for proposals for single tier of local government]: