Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I start with two declarations: first, to pass on the apologies of my noble friend Lady Hamwee, who unfortunately is too ill to be here today—which means that she must be very ill because she wants very much to take part in the Bill. Secondly, I declare once again my interest as having served continuously as a councillor in the London Borough of Sutton for nearly 35 years. We made clear our position on the Bill during the Second Reading debate—I am grateful to the noble Baroness for quoting a very good summary of it given then by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. It is not that we are against the promotion of democracy; exactly the opposite is true. It is rather, as I said at Second Reading, that we see it as being properly the role of local authorities. It is for them to decide best how to do it in terms of their local circumstances, the nature of the local area and so on. It really is not the business of central government to prescribe, even to the extent and detail that is being done here, how local authorities should do it. As we go on through Committee, and particularly as we delve into the many amendments to be moved by my noble friend Lord Greaves, who has much experience of these matters, we will see just how difficult it becomes when you get into the detail of promoting local democracy, petition schemes and so on. I turn to the four amendments in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Hamwee. The first three, Amendments 2, 23 and 61, would insert the words ““to use reasonable endeavours””. They retain the promotion of democracy as a duty, but not as an absolute duty. That is qualified by Amendment 21, which refers to, "““an assessment of the extent to which it is reasonable to incur expenditure””." That is an extremely important consideration these days for any local authority. If they are to meet these duties, they must have regard to the amount of expenditure that it is reasonable to incur in doing so. It is a necessary qualification that should appear in the Bill. The Explanatory Notes give some indication of government estimates of expenditure. I am unclear as to how that estimate is to be translated into increased grant to local authorities to meet costs, especially for those London boroughs which are floor authorities, as most of them are, and receive no increase in grant for any and all purposes. The purpose of our series of amendments is to make the promotion of democracy not an absolute but a qualified duty—““to use reasonable endeavours””. It is entirely right that local authorities should promote democracy—rather less right that government should insist on it—but, as always, it must be balanced by the need to assess the expenditure necessary to achieve the purpose desired.