Queen’s Speech

My Lords, I begin by declaring some interests. For over 34 years I have been a councillor in the London Borough of Sutton. I am pleased to say that for the past 22 years the residents of that borough have enjoyed a continuously Liberal Democrat administration. Indeed, this year the Audit Commission, in its corporate assessment, awarded the administration the highest possible rating of four stars and judged it to be ““improving strongly””, even after all those years. The other interest that I want to declare is even more relevant. I have been a member of the Committee of the Regions, the EU body set up under the Maastricht treaty 15 years ago to be, in simple terms, the voice of local and regional government in the European Union’s decision-making process. That has not only taught me a lot about how sub-state government works in the rest of Europe, but shown me forcefully the importance of a strong and healthy local democracy in those parts of Europe that did not enjoy democratic government for most of the last century. I want to concentrate on local democracy today. When I was a new, young councillor a long time ago, the Conservative leader of the then Association of Metropolitan Authorities—who happened also to be a Sutton councillor—told me that there were only two parties. I thought immediately that this was yet another go at the Liberal party. In fact it was not; he meant the central government party and the local government party. Thirty years on not a great deal has changed. In spite of all the fine words about central-local partnership, the signing of concordats, and so on, central government still has a remarkable unifying effect on all parties in local government. That is because actions speak louder than fine words. The reality, so often, is that central government still sees local government as little more than its delivery arm. Local democracy really means not much more than local administration. This is very well illustrated by at least the first part of what I call the ““local democracy and a few other things”” Bill. We are all struggling to find a title for it. Maybe we will have solved that problem by the end of the process that will begin next week. Back in the 1980s some Labour councils adopted their own foreign policy. Indeed, there were times during the past eight years as a Member of the Greater London Authority when I thought I was back in the 1980s. Of course, councillors are politicians; they will have political views about foreign policy and many other national issues, and they have the right to express those views. However, nobody would now argue that the councils that they run should have policies on international issues and their own foreign policy. Those are clearly outside the scope of those councils’ responsibilities. Now it seems that the situation is almost exactly reversed. Of course national politicians have views about community empowerment and local democracy and the right to express those views, but it is not the role of central government to legislate on local councils’ approach to community empowerment. Just as local councils should not get involved in issues outside their jurisdiction, central government should concentrate on the things that only national Governments can do. I have learned over my 30 years in local government that Governments always legislate for the small minority of worst-case councils. I judge legislation not by what it will do for the worst, where almost anything will be an improvement, but what it will do for the best councils. Like most local government legislation of the past 30 years, that proposed for this coming Session will do little or nothing to make the best councils even better. There is no greater believer than me in the devolution of power, but that is a top-down process. It is necessary because we live in one of the most centralised states in the democratic world. My greater passion is for subsidiarity, a word which my spellchecker does not recognise. It is sometimes a word that I do not think central government recognises either. It means that decisions are taken nearest to the people they affect: a truly bottom-up approach. Of course, it is a dream. Last year, I had a view of what that dream might be like in reality. I was talking with a Minister in the Basque Government. He told me that, as an autonomous region in Spain, they collect 100 per cent of the taxes payable in their region. They then make a grant to the Spanish Government for the services that only a national Government can provide. For a few moments I had a vision. I had a vision of government Ministers clamouring every December for a meeting with me to explain that my council’s generous grant to them was simply not enough. Of course it was a dream, but if the Government are serious about local democracy and community empowerment, they need to apply the subsidiarity principle beyond just the EU and its member states. Community empowerment does not need legislation; it needs political will and understanding. Above all, it needs central government to let go—to trust people and their elected representatives, and to let them do it in their own way. It is a dream, but 40 years ago, another man had a far more famous dream. I live in hope, but not in expectation.