Queen’s Speech

My Lords, I intend to concentrate on two aspects of the gracious Speech—on the snappily titled Bill we discussed earlier and on the overriding theme of the gracious Speech; namely, dealing with the economic downturn, particularly the role of local government in that. I have resisted any attempt to speak on transport. One of my roles is chair of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities. We conducted a referendum campaign on a transport package and I have spoken far too much about transport. The results will be out at lunchtime on Friday when I will see whether I will be depressed all weekend. I also declare an interest as Leader of Wigan Council and chair of 4NW, which I will come to in a moment. My noble friend will be relieved that she has only one major Bill to deal with this time because she certainly had a lot to do in previous years. But it is an important Bill and I particularly welcome the way that it will bring in aspects of the national review, which was first published in July 2007. It is important to recognise that there is a regional dimension. Although I was interested in the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, I do not think she quite understands that the regional assemblies and the new forum will provide opportunities for local authorities to talk about problems that stray beyond their original boundaries. Economic matters are not confined within the boundary of one local authority but spread over a number of local authorities. I know that my Conservative colleagues in the north-west welcome the fact that they have an opportunity to talk and to try to find a way forward for the north-west. The Bill will allow local government a much stronger role in shaping the economic strategy of the regions, which in the past has been imposed on them. However, I have to confess to my noble friend that we jumped the gun somewhat in the north-west. Last July, we abolished the regional assembly and created a body called 4NW, which is effectively the regional leaders forum in the legislation. It is building on our past record. We have a good record with the RDA and with government offices and have already discussed the policy direction of the single regional strategy. In Greater Manchester last August we reviewed our constitution to help to deliver the strategies of our multi-area agreement. We set up seven commissions, one of which will be called—again, snappily—Economic Development, Employment and Skills. This is doing, effectively, what the economic prosperity board in the Bill will be doing. Perhaps we will be slightly different because the majority of our members are not from local authorities and the chairman is from the private sector. It will be interesting to see how others do it. Clearly, local government should be at the heart of local democracy, so I welcome those parts of the Bill and look forward to discussing the detail of that in Committee. Daily we see the severity of the economic slowdown in the country becoming more apparent. Local authorities need to be well placed to respond to this. The power of well-being, which I remember being fully debated in the first local government Bill that I was involved in back in 1999-2000, gives us the power and responsibility to get involved in these areas, to look at the impact on our communities and to respond in a way that, perhaps, we had not in the past. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, mentioned, the economic downturn will clearly have a negative impact on local authority finances. Deloitte has estimated that, with the increased costs and the reduction in income, there will be around a 6 per cent cut in local authority budgets. Clearly, it is not a time when we can think of passing any of that on to council tax payers. Unlike the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, I believe that this is a time when local authorities should, can and want to be innovative about moving resources to front-line services, and working in partnership with other authorities to make sure that it can be done effectively. The Government recognise the role that local authorities can play in tackling the downturn as they involve local authorities, both regionally and nationally, in the regional economic councils. Already, in response, many local authorities have already agreed to the 10-day payment requirement and have set up advice centres to deal with people with debts, particularly those with housing issues. It is well-known that people who seek advice on housing matters before going to court with regarding repossession orders fare much better than those who do not. We want to work with local small businesses, but there is a small issue that the Minister may want to think about. While we can be sympathetic in accepting late payments from local small businesses to ease their financial burdens, the Audit Commission judges local authorities by the efficiency with which they collect their debts. There may well be a contradiction between our being helpful and considerate to small businesses and being downgraded by the Audit Commission. It is also important for local authorities to participate in apprenticeship schemes. I remember the 1980s when children leaving school were unable to find employment. Many of those cohorts of kids are still the core of the workless today. They have not been in employment for the past 20 or so years. We do not want any more Thatcher’s children in this country. We are also willing to participate in the capital projects but, again, I remind the Minister that capital projects can take a while to get off the starting blocks. We need to protect those PFI schemes which are in danger now because of the financial problems in the City. Those schemes can be delivered if they continue to get funding. In the north-west, the scheme for the Carlisle northern bypass has been struggling with its PFI. The Greater Manchester waste project is probably the biggest waste project in Europe but, again, if it does not get its PFI, jobs will be lost and valuable activities will not take place. One of the short-term issues should be to make homes more energy-efficient. If we can do that, we can create good jobs that will upskill people and get people to save money on their energy costs and be green at the same time. It is a good kind of project. My noble friend Lady Jones mentioned housing. I do not want to go into the whole subject but I do want to raise one issue. There is something of a conflict with what CLG is trying to do over the policy on housing subsidies in the public sector. It has a policy of trying to redistribute housing subsidy. That may have been the right policy in the past but I do not think that it is in the current climate. There is a great inconsistency. If I, as a leader, was to recommend a council tax rise of above 5 per cent, I would be capped, but the CLG recommends that we raise our council rents by 6.35 per cent. That will affect some of the poorest members of my community. I hope the Minister will think about that. At this time, do we want to tax the poorest in our communities? I know some of them will be on benefits, but many, with small savings and job-related pensions, will not. We should be able to demonstrate that, within the current economic downturn, there are many local solutions to issues that occur locally. Local authorities are well-placed to deliver those.