UK Parliament / Open data

Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill

As I said, it would be extremely unlikely for any government to ignore the view of either House of Parliament if that view had been expressed in the form of a Motion that had been widely supported. Of course, no Government would ever say that they had a monopoly of wisdom in areas such as this. If there are any good ideas coming forward from any source, it is appropriate to review the proposals on the table.

I think we are dancing on the head of a pin here, if I may say so to my noble friend, because it is very likely that government will receive advice from a number of quarters as they go forward with this agenda. As he said, we are having to deal with an extremely complex set of metrics, and we are keen that those with expertise, among whom your Lordships can be numbered, are able to scrutinise the progress that government is making and express a view if they wish to.

My noble friend Lady Scott’s recent letter to your Lordships stated a number of things that perhaps bear repeating. The statement of levelling-up missions will be based on the 12 missions set out in the White Paper. The statement will include detail about the metrics being used to monitor progress. As I mentioned, those metrics will be identical to the technical annexe in the White Paper as progressed by further work undertaken since then. In particular, it might be helpful for noble Lords to note that well-being and pride of place are still being worked on, but that this work is near completion. I hope that we can provide further detail about that quite soon.

Amendments 26 and 32 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, and Amendment 38 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, put forward an independent body or independent evaluation of the missions and progress. The Government of course recognise that scrutiny and seeking expert advice will be important to ensuring that we deliver on our missions and level up the country. That is why we have already established the Levelling Up Advisory Council, chaired by Andy Haldane, to provide government with expert and independent advice to inform the design and delivery of the levelling-up agenda. The noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, mentioned the desirability of having academic and other outside expertise available to the council, and I absolutely agree. The council draws regularly on wider academic, business and other expertise to inform its advice, and includes voices from different parts of the UK.

Appointments to the Levelling Up Advisory Council are made at the discretion of the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and in accordance with the Cabinet Office processes for public appointments. Among the council’s membership are Sally Mapstone of the University of St Andrews, Cathy Gormley-Heenan of Ulster University, and Katherine Bennett, who chairs the Western Gateway, the UK’s first pan-regional partnership to bring together leaders from Wales and western England. I can tell the Committee that the Government will continue to look at ensuring that membership of the Levelling Up Advisory Council represents all parts of the UK. We are indeed already working with the devolved Administrations and with English local government on the levelling-up challenges and will continue to do so.

I will just add a couple of points for the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, in particular. As set out in the technical annexe to the White Paper, the missions largely rest on metrics published by the Office for National Statistics and others, so performance will be transparent and everyone will be able to judge how the Government are doing. That is right because, as I emphasised earlier, government should be accountable.

Amendment 41 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, would ensure that an annual report was published before a general election. I have to part company with her on that point; the timings for laying the report before Parliament and publishing documents are, in my view, rightly independent of the electoral cycle, as is the case for other key government frameworks such as the Charter for Budget Responsibility. The purpose of laying reports is to allow for Parliament to hold the Government to account on their progress towards the missions, and the Bill requires the Government to publish reports as soon “as is reasonably practicable”. Levelling up is a challenging, long-term agenda which cannot be achieved within a single electoral cycle. The framework for missions which we are establishing here reflects that long-term vision.

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Amendment 27 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, would mean that the Government must publish a statement confirming whether they will be renewing each mission before it ends. Amendment 44 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, and Amendment 47 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, would further require the Minister to publish relevant academic advice or the results of a consultation when revising the levelling-up statement.

As the economy adapts, so too might the missions to reflect the changing environment and, perhaps, lessons learned from past interventions. As we become more ambitious, or as better metrics become available, we should be able to update missions to reflect that. Importantly, the Bill sets out that any changes to missions should be fully and transparently explained and justified through a statement to Parliament, when they occur. If a Government are seen to be abandoning a mission for poor reasons, they will be held to account for it. If a Government no longer intend to pursue a levelling-up mission, they must state that clearly in the annual report and, crucially, provide reasons for its discontinuation. The Bill also requires a Government to complete a review of the current statement of levelling-up missions and publish the report on the review before a new statement is laid before each House of Parliament.

The Government’s progress towards delivering missions will be subject to independent external scrutiny. Parliament, the public, academics, think tanks and civil society will all have an opportunity to comment and report on how well the Government deliver missions, in response to our annual reports. For example, the East of England APPG has worked with the Local Government Association and local stakeholders to publish a recent report assessing local progress on the 12 missions in the region.

The Bill sets out clear timescales when Parliament and the public will be able to scrutinise the missions themselves—via the statement of missions—and the progress towards them, via the annual report. This level of transparency will ensure that both Houses of Parliament and the public can scrutinise any decision to discontinue a mission. Therefore, an additional requirement to publish a statement on whether a Government will renew each mission, as set out in Amendment 27, is, I contend, unnecessary.

As regards the target dates for the delivery of levelling-up missions set out in Amendment 45 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, I say again that we are setting a challenging and long-term policy agenda. The whole purpose of the missions is to ensure focus on long-term policy goals in a way that transcends the electoral cycle.

Amendment 46 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, means that a review must be published if a Minister deems that there has been a significant change in the economic situation. It is important that we do not mandate that Governments review the statement when that may not be necessary. We should not commit future Governments to publish an additional review, taking up government attention and resources, when it may not be needed.

Importantly, the Bill sets out that any changes to missions, when they occur, should be fully and transparently explained and justified through a statement to Parliament. The missions will be rolling endeavours and the Government will be able to publish such statements and reviews at any time that they deem necessary.

Therefore, given the extent of government action on these priorities and the approach that has been set out to setting a clear, uncluttered and long-lasting framework for measuring the progress of levelling-up missions, I hope that I have provided noble Lords with sufficient assurance to enable them to withdraw these amendments.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
827 cc1467-1470 
Session
2022-23
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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