My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, for his remarks. I thought that he might have some questions about the orders that are referred to in the Explanatory Memorandum but are not before the Grand Committee for debate today, so I have some information which I hope will be helpful to him.
One the first points he made concerned why we are introducing the order formally to bring these corporations to an end. Although there was an expectation that they would be time-limited when they were set up, no specific time was fixed for them at the point of their creation. Therefore, it is necessary to draw them formally to a close.
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I may have to write to the noble Lord on some of the specific questions that he raised. However, I can respond to the questions he posed on Northamptonshire, which relate more to the transfer order than to the one before us. The proposal to transfer the corporation’s assets has been subject to consultation, as required by the statute under which the transfer is made. We consulted Northampton Borough Council, Daventry District Council, South Northants Council and Northamptonshire County Council as the authorities within the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation’s geographical area of operation which are directly affected by the closure.
All four councils participated in the consultation, which took place from 26 November 2013 until 2 January this year. My officials worked closely with the authorities before the consultation for some time, so the proposals did not come as any surprise. Indeed, the successor local authorities are eager to take on their new responsibilities. Quite a bit of work has taken place between all the interested parties.
Three out of the four local authorities formally responded to the consultation, all of which supported the proposals. In the main, they were seeking clarity on the arrangements—for example, confirmation that the assets would be transferred to them for nil cash consideration. We were able to confirm that this would be the case, as it was with the transfer of assets from London and Thurrock corporations.
Northampton Borough Council queried the adoption of a bridge on one of the sites, but we were able to give it sufficient additional information to resolve this concern. To help it with sufficient resource capacity to manage the assets and liabilities going forward, we have provided £1 million of funding to Northampton Borough Council, which will be taking on the vast majority of projects. In the case of London and Thurrock, similar capacity
funding was also provided to the GLA and Thurrock Council respectively. Therefore, we have ensured that any costs involved will be covered and that local authorities will not be disadvantaged.
It might be worth my telling the noble Lord what assets we are talking about. The majority of assets are in Northampton. The major assets being transferred are St Peter’s Waterside, land at South Bridge Road and land at Avon Nunn Mills. That has all gone to Northampton Borough Council. A former railway line between Coton Road, Northampton and Great Houghton is transferred to Northamptonshire County Council.
In Thurrock, all the assets and liabilities of Thurrock Thames Gateway have been transferred. London Thames Gateway’s development assets on the fringes of the Olympic Park were transferred to the new London Legacy Development Corporation. This was followed in January 2013 by a transfer of further land in the Lee River Park. In April last year, the remaining development assets of the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation were transferred to the Greater London Authority. As I say, funding has been provided to cover any costs.
The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, asked about pension rights and retained pension liabilities. They revert to the DCLG. He also asked about a retained list and human resources, I think. That, again, comes back to the DCLG.
On ensuring the successor arrangements are delivering in line with the principle of localism, we will not be formally monitoring local authorities’ performance but, as I have already said, we have provided capacity funding for them and have confidence in Northampton Borough Council on the specific points for which it is going to take responsibility.
The noble Lord asked about winding up affairs by 31 July. If any issues are outstanding, they return to the department. It will be dealing with issues such as final accounts between March and July, so we are now in the period where we are dealing with all the minor remaining issues, and we have no reason to believe that they will not be completed by 31 July.
I hope I have responded to at least the vast majority of the points that the noble Lord raised. If there is anything that I missed, I will come back to him in writing.