Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I have one amendment in this group, Amendment 25, by which I simply seek to build on my earlier comments and those of the noble Lords, Lord Tope and Lord Greaves. Clause 2 places a duty on the local authority to promote understanding of the functions of connected authorities. The Bill then goes on to list a great number of bodies, organisations, agencies, authorities and, perhaps I may say, quangos. My Amendment 25 is designed to emphasise the tenuous democratic nature of all those organisations because they do not enjoy democratic arrangements at all. The nature of these bodies is that someone else controls them. Someone else appoints their members, and someone else controls their budgets and priorities. That someone else may be the Secretary of State, but it is certainly not local voters. If the Government wish local authorities to promote understanding of these bodies, it is not unreasonable to ask them to put an extra paragraph on the Explanatory Notes pointing out that neither they nor the voters have very much to say on what goes on in these authorities. Indeed, I was almost minded to champion this clause, rather than seek to amend it, because if an understanding of the true democratic nature of these bodies was enthusiastically and honestly promoted, a backlash would surely arise when voters were made fully aware of just how impotent they actually are. We have consistently argued against the creation of new quangos and criticised their lack of accountability. If the Government are serious about engaging local voters, boosting local democracy and encouraging people to participate, this lack of accountability will have to be properly addressed. Until they are ready to address that real issue, we might as well be honest about the current reality.