Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]

Indeed, Mr. Deputy Speaker, so I shall explain that my view of local government democracy—as put forward in the new clause proposed by my right hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin and Harpenden, to which I am addressing my remarks—is that local government should have the right to develop in its own area, using its own resources. I want to extend those resources. However, local government does not have the right to make a decision and demand that somebody centrally—without consideration—should pay for that decision, outwith the normal sums of money that come to a locality. That is why the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, South-West (Dr. Starkey) and I may not have got on well in those days. However, I shall not carry on down that route, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Local democratic choice demands the willingness of central Government to give powers away. I find that my colleagues are very keen on subsidiarity from Brussels to Westminster, but they are less keen on subsidiarity from Westminster to the town hall or county hall. People in the town hall or county hall are very keen on subsidiarity from Government to them, but if one suggests subsidiarity from them to the parish council they get extremely annoyed. I hope that this Parliament can be the first Parliament for a long time to believe in real subsidiarity. We should do in Brussels the things that we can do only in Brussels—there are many of them and they are valuable. We should do in Westminster the things that we can do only in Westminster, and we should insist on doing the things we do not need to do in Brussels. But we in Westminster have to believe in subsidiarity and this Local Democracy etc. Bill has little to do with local democracy, for in the end, as the hon. Member for Manchester, Blackley rightly says, it does not give local authorities power to make their own decisions—indeed, the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, South-West is even suggesting that we should guide them in the provision of public lavatories. If they cannot deal with their own public lavatories, we cannot trust them to deal with anything.