Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I apologise for being late for the start of the Committee, but I was approving a report for the Greater Manchester authorities on what their attitude should be to EPBs—so it was quite topical. I therefore need to make sure that I declare my interest as chairman of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities. The Manchester city regions have made a lot of progress recently, but there remain enormous pockets of deprivation. We need to make sure that the worklessness targets in the MAA can be met, and we are concerned about the impact of the current recession. As I said at Second Reading, we have already established what appears to be the economic prosperity board. We call it the economic commission. It differs from what the Government want in that the majority of its board members come from the private sector. They sit with local authority members and look at whether they can improve the economy of Greater Manchester. We have set up an independent review, which is just about to report. We think that we are accountable, because not only are we accountable to the local authorities that we represent but also we have a scrutiny body of the 10 authorities working together. We ought therefore to be seen as a body which would be an enthusiastic participant in the new EPB system. However, it is a very cumbersome structure. All I read in these clauses is that powers and functions come from local authorities and nowhere else. If the Government are serious about EPBs—I think that my noble friend would want to listen to this—they should give us some teeth and devolve some powers from central government and their agencies so that we can deliver significant changes for our local economy. If we want to tackle the worklessness agenda, we need to get hold of the powers and budgets that the LSC and Jobcentre Plus have; we want skills; and we need to be able make sure that health authorities are directing some of their funding to the health issues. I do not see anything in this clause. If the Government want people to participate, they must think about what is in it for local authorities so that they might want to get involved in what is, frankly, a bureaucratic organisation. As I have said, we will continue to do what we do under our economic commission—I do not think that we will form an EPB because there is no point. There would be a point if the Government said that we can do something as local authorities working together in our area and not having to work through a number of government agencies. We have an MAA and, quite frankly, it is moving slowly. We want to make sure that we do not go through that loop again. The Government need to rethink these clauses and think about what they can do for local authorities; it should not always be the other way round.