Localism Bill

For the best of a century, most Bills that have passed through this House have taken power from communities and councils and given more power to central Government, or in some cases to European government. This is an historic Bill, not just for the measures it contains but for what it represents. It is about striking out in a different direction. Power should be held at the lowest possible level. We want this to be the first Parliament for many years that, by the end of its Sessions, will have given power away. That is true for many of the Bill's provisions—the community right to challenge; the community right to bid for assets of public value; the abolition of regional spatial strategies; the introduction of neighbourhood planning—but nowhere is it more significant than in clause 1, which deals with the general power of competence. The general power of competence changes the default position. Currently, local government exists to do the things that central Government require it to do. Clause 1 turns that default position upside down. Local government can do the things that it thinks are right, unless they are positively banned. What is not forbidden is permitted. The question for councils is not, ““Can we do this?”” but, ““How can we make it happen?”” I am pleased to see across the Chamber veterans of our many hours in Committee, including the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey). The Bill has enjoyed 70 hours of scrutiny in the House of Commons and 105 hours of scrutiny in their lordships' House. It has also been the subject of advice from many outside groups. As colleagues who served on the Committee will know, I have always taken the view that, if we are going to make use of that parliamentary time and engage with a large number of submissions from outside groups, it behoves the Government to listen to the sensible suggestions that have been made, and to the constructive advice we have received, with an open mind. There is a form of Bill-handling in which it is seen as the Bill Minister's responsibility to carry the Bill through its every parliamentary stage as though it were a Ming vase, to repel boarders and to keep people away from it so that emerges intact at the other end. That has never been my view. I think that it is right to listen to constructive suggestions, of which there have been many during the Bill's progress. I want to pay tribute to the scrutiny that all members of the Committee performed. I am sorry to see that the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) is not in her place tonight, because she approached her responsibilities with the utmost dedication and forensically scrutinised the Bill. We all know that the Opposition lack the excellent resources provided to the Government by civil servants, so I would like to pay tribute to her leadership on the Bill from the Opposition Front Bench. We do, however, have the benefit of the presence of the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington, although the hon. Member for Plymouth, Moor View (Alison Seabeck) has been moved to other duties. He is therefore the last man standing, and I am glad that our team is intact. Much rests on his shoulders, and we are grateful for his contribution. In the House of Commons Committee, we strengthened the Bill, especially in relation to the duty to co-operate. We had some very productive discussions on that, in which we established agreement with hon. Members across the House. On Report, we said that we would consider the neighbourhood planning aspects of the Bill in the House of Lords, because some of the amendments that were suggested by Members on both sides of the House required greater technical reflection. Many of the amendments that we shall consider today deal with those matters. The process has been productive. Looking at the report of the Third Reading debate in the House of Lords, I was struck by some of the comments. Lord Best, speaking on behalf of the Cross Benchers this time last week, said that"““the key role of this House in scrutinising legislation has been wonderfully illustrated by the progress of the Localism Bill. I have been given a list of 10 major issues that were originally of considerable concern to the Local Government Association, for example, and on which that body, representing local authorities up and down the land, now feels reassured and to a very large degree satisfied with the legislation as it now appears. The same kind of list could have been devised by a number of external agencies, with the same satisfaction rating at the end of that.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 31 October 2011; Vol. 731, c. 1106.]" Lord Tope, my noble Friend on the Liberal Democrat Benches, said that"““we are now sending something like 100 pages of amendments back to the Commons. What is more notable is that all those amendments have been passed without the need for a vote; in other words, we have truly reached consensus.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 31 October 2011; Vol. 731, c. 1107.]" The Labour Front-Bench spokesman, Lord McKenzie of Luton, said:"““It has been a listening team, which has boded well for the outcome of the Bill… The Government have listened to the voices of experience and common sense.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 31 October 2011; Vol. 731, c. 1108.]" That has been our demeanour throughout the proceedings, and it will continue to be our demeanour as we approach the matters before us today. I see from the amendment paper that suggestions from colleagues on both sides of the House have serious thought behind them, and I will respond to them constructively and positively. Having dealt with the general power of competence, let me turn to some of the amendments in the group, starting with those that cover transport. There was extensive discussion in the other place on the general powers, and it was argued that the general power of competence should be extended beyond the local authorities that were in the original drafting of the Bill. Lords amendments 4, 5 and 7 therefore extend broad new powers to the integrated transport authorities and their passenger transport executives. These points were also raised by Opposition Front Benchers in Committee. The provisions will enable authorities to undertake ancillary and possibly joint activities outside their geographic boundaries, for example. This will improve and strengthen the Bill in the direction that we have set out, and I am pleased to commend those Lords amendments to colleagues today. We agree with Lords amendment 6, which proposes to extend the general powers of competence to, for example, combined authorities. We know that Greater Manchester has established very satisfactory arrangements for joint working, and it is reasonable that those powers should be extended to such arrangements. Lords amendments 8 to 13, 242 and 399 to 402 have been termed collectively the ““core cities”” group of amendments. They represent a significant breakthrough. During the passage of the Bill, it was clear to those on all sides that we had an opportunity to embed mechanisms to allow the future devolution of power from central Government to local government. Working over the summer with the representatives of the Core Cities Group and the leaders of local authorities, from all parties, across the country, we were able with the co-operation of Front Benchers of all parties represented in the House of Lords to agree a set of amendments that will allow for the transfer of public functions and the delegation to local authorities, by agreement and subject to a super-affirmative procedure. This is an important new power. It will allow us to enact, without the need for primary legislation, agreed transfers of power between local authorities and central Government. Those transfers of power might not be obvious today. I have encouraged particular cities across the country to consider which powers that are currently held by central Government they could usefully discharge themselves. This mechanism will give us the opportunity to allow them to do so, and I should like to put on record my gratitude to the leaders and officers of the Core Cities Group for their help. A few technical amendments in this group respond to recommendations of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. On Second Reading and in Committee, we had much to say about the so-called Henry VIII powers that were to be made available to the Secretary of State. My view at the time was that we should go through them individually, and that those that were proved unnecessary or superfluous should be removed as the Bill progressed through the House. We have delivered on that commitment. A substantial number of those powers have now been narrowed in scope or, in some cases, removed. For example, Lords amendment 231 will ensure that orders made under the Bill are subject to the affirmative procedure. That power will allow the Secretary of State to amend or repeal any power that overlaps with the general power of competence, but it will require the affirmative procedure to be employed. Lords amendment 232 will remove an exception that permitted orders to be accepted through the negative resolution procedure. I will not go through all the amendments, but I think that Members will acknowledge, as did their lordships, that we have responded to the concerns that many hon. Members expressed about the nature of the powers reserved to the Secretary of State. Benign though the present Secretary of State is, there was a fear that some future Secretaries of State might not be as localist in their intentions. Those provisions will now be safeguarded in the Bill. The final amendment in the group will remove all doubt that fire and rescue authorities should not be able to charge for community fire safety advice or for fire prevention activity. This matter was raised in the other place by Baroness Smith of Basildon, a former fire Minister, and we have been pleased to introduce the provision. I am grateful for their lordships' scrutiny. I am especially grateful to the Front-Bench team that represented the Government so well. It was led by Baroness Hanham and supported by Lord Taylor, Lord Attlee and Lord Shutt. We urge colleagues to agree to the Lords amendments in this group.