My Lords, I very much support the comments just made by the noble Lords, Lord Storey and Lord Patel, and the thrust of the argument. It is right that we get as much knowledge and experience and skills before making any of these decisions. I suggest to the Minister that this is going to be a recurring theme throughout our consideration of the Bill: what is the nature of the partnership which she says is at the core of the proposed legislation before us?
There are two issues. The noble Lord, Lord Patel, just used a phrase about people knowing where the power lies. That is part of the problem. In words it looks as though the employers, the people leading the partnership, have got to, by law, consult with people. The Minister may sense that there is not absolute confidence in noble Lords who have spoken today that that will happen to the degree necessary. I share that concern. Once you say so many times that it is employer-led, that it is those people who matter, and that they will be making the decisions, you have created a very unbalanced relationship between the employers and the people they are meant to consult. So I would be looking for something in the Bill, whether it is these amendments or others, to boost the standing and the contribution of the other partners.
I have not heard anybody say that the other partners—employers, education institutions, students, trade unions—are not important and have not got a role to play. But what is missing from the Bill, given our previous experience of such legislation, is any assurance that they will be listened to and will have the ability to influence what is going on, and some powers to put a brake on something if they do not like it. If they are just going to be written to, asked for their view and then ignored, it will not work, and the Bill could allow for that. That is my worry with that part of the Bill. The Bill as written could allow for that.
6.45 pm
The point I really want to make is something that I have changed my mind on this afternoon, and it is the aspect of these amendments that refers to the mayoral combined authorities. I think there is an uneasy and unhealthy relationship between all three major parties—perhaps not the Liberals, in fairness—that have formed a Government in the last couple of decades, and local authorities. I think that over recent years local authorities have much improved: they are more accountable, their progress is more measurable and they have learned some important lessons. But the organisation I want to speak most about is the mayoral combined authority.
All major political parties have passed legislation bringing into being more mayoral combined authorities, so all politicians from all parties believe that they are things for the good. The worst thing you can do to those organisations is not give them the power to actually make decisions at local level, because what you then do to the citizens of those areas is say, “These are the people with the power”, but you deny them the power, they cannot deliver the goods and the whole accountability mechanism falls asunder.
I want my main point to be about the mayoral combined authorities, because I have come to think, this afternoon, that they should be leading the partnership, not the employers. I base that on something the Minister said in winding up the debate on the first group of amendments today. She made a powerful case for employers being the ones who know what competence and skills are needed for a specific job. If it is a crane driver, which was the example she gave, I absolutely agree that the people who will need to know what a level 3 crane driver needs are the employers—but that is such a small part of the skill set needed to draw up a local strategic plan, and I am not sure that their expertise hits on the other things as well.
So I agree with the Minister that it is very important that, in terms of the competence of a qualification—the skill that is needed to do the job; the way it is assessed; what it means; how it is described; and making sure standards are high—I take my hat off and I put the employers at the front. However, if we are talking about the overall economic strategy of a region, about being accountable to the people who live there, about having a meaningful role to play in a wide range of activities and responsibilities across a regional area, it is not the employers who have got it; it is the local authorities, where they are the senior civic body, and the mayoral combined authorities, where they are.
I think that part of the success of a lot of policies, not just on skills, will be how successful we are in bolstering civic organisations over the years to come. If the Government are serious about devolving power and saying to local people, “You’ve got a say and decisions will be made near where you live”, there is a real job to be done in bolstering local civic organisations, and this is a glorious chance to do that. However, if we set up a bit of legislation that says, “It’s about local skills and a local plan, and it’s got to do with your locality”, and then you say “But the people we’re going to put in charge could be part of a national or an international employment change and not the people you’ve elected”, I do not know what kind of message that gives.
It is not that I am opposed that any of these people having a say but, having listened to the debates this afternoon, I am not confident that we have, first, the power relationship right, and I am now not confident that we have the lead provider right, either, and these amendments give us the opportunity to explore that.