My Lords, I thank the noble Lords, Lord McKenzie and Lord Bradley, for their contributions. I welcome the support across the Committee for the way that we are moving forward with Greater Manchester. Various questions were raised and I shall try to answer all of them.
The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, asked what powers the Greater Manchester Combined Authority will receive. To give a bit more detail on some of the issues over which it will have control, they include: control of apprenticeship grants for employers; power to reshape and restructure the further education provision within Greater Manchester; control of an expanding Working Well pilot with central government funding linked to good performance; the opportunity to be a joint commissioner with the Department for Work and Pensions for the next phase of the Work Programme; and the GMCA and Greater Manchester clinical commissioning groups will be invited to develop a business plan for the integration of health and social care across the area based on the control of existing health and social care budgets.
The elected mayor of Greater Manchester will receive greater responsibility for a devolved and consolidated transport budget with a multiyear settlement to be agreed at the next spending review, for a franchised bus service, for integrating smart ticketing across all local modes of transport and for exploring on an urgent basis further opportunities for devolving rail
stations across the Greater Manchester area. The elected mayor will also receive powers for strategic planning, including the power to create a statutory spatial framework for Greater Manchester; control of a new £300 million housing investment fund; control of a reformed earn-back deal with the current envelope of £300 million a year for 30 years; and incorporate the role and responsibilities of the Greater Manchester police and crime commissioner.
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The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, also asked how the legislation would come about. As I said in my opening remarks, there will be a transition period before the legislation creating a Greater Manchester mayor is passed and he or she is elected, which we expect to be in early 2017. During that period the combined authority will receive additional flexibilities to reform public services, specifically around business support skills and complex dependency. It will also assume responsibilities which will eventually be transferred to the elected mayor, such as the housing investment fund, and steps will be taken to amend the combined authority to create an 11th member as a chair, who will be the interim mayor until the mayor is elected.
As to the timeline, primary legislation for the election of the mayor will be required and this will be laid in the next parliamentary Session. Accordingly, the first mayor is due to be elected in early 2017. As to when we plan to bring forward legislative proposals following the November 2014 devolution agreement between the Government and Greater Manchester, it is envisaged that a Bill will be introduced into Parliament with a provision that would enable the mayor for Greater Manchester to be elected in early 2017.
The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, asked about the circumstances under which the reappointment of the interim mayor of Greater Manchester may be necessary. Until Parliament legislates for an elected mayor, it is at the discretion of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to appoint an interim mayor. Any such appointment would be for a fixed term to be determined by the combined authority for up to a maximum of two years. It is our intention that there will be primary legislation in the next Parliament to directly facilitate elections in 2017, as I said.
I have already referred to mayoral powers. On the public consultation, an issue which the noble Lord, Lord Bradley, raised, the devolution agreement provides for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to agree with the Government its plans for evaluation, with the first review to be completed in 2019-20. These plans will be expected to include the extent of any public consultation considered appropriate in the evaluation.
On the question of a referendum on the introduction of the directly elected mayor, this is not about replacing one form of governance with another: it delivers the same services with the same resources—which, in effect, is what previous referendums have been about. There will be greater democratic accountability. I was asked what would happen if there was a rejection of the proposal for an elected mayor. There will be no referendum for the reasons that I have just talked about. Clearly, if there were a referendum that rejected the proposal, the proposal could not be proceeded with at that time.
As I said, this is about ensuring good governance. The combined authority’s current members are elected by residents in individual wards and, as the new devolved powers will affect the whole of the Greater Manchester area, we believe that the best way of achieving the necessary greater democratic accountability is for all residents of Greater Manchester to decide who would take the position of the elected mayor.
The noble Lord, Lord Bradley, also asked about the existing consultation and expressed his concern that it took only three weeks and did not give residents an opportunity to comment. The order is technical and limited in scope and we consulted all the statutory consultees—in this case the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the 10 local authorities within the Greater Manchester area. Other appropriate consultees were considered to be the local enterprise partnership and the Business Leadership Council. I trust that I have answered all the questions.