My Lords, we have a couple of amendments in this group, one in my name and one in the name of my noble friend Lady Taylor of Stevenage. First, Amendment 73 in my noble friend’s name would mean that a non-constituent member ceases to be a member when they form part of a different CCA.
We are aware that the Local Government Association has expressed concerns about this amendment. It has said that local areas should be able to “look both ways”—in other words, be a non-constituent member of more than one authority—if they have close economic or cultural ties with more than one combined authority or devolution deal area. It has also expressed concerns about the fact that it would set a precedent, contrary to the current plans for the city of York, which is currently a non-constituent member of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority but would become a member of the new York and North Yorkshire mayoral combined authority.
I want to explain the thinking behind why we tabled this amendment, which is, of course, a probing amendment. It is of course understandable that local authority non-constituent members may wish to be part of more than one CCA. However, we believe, first, that district councils should be constituent, not non-constituent, members of a CCA, to ensure that they can play a full part in decision-making for their area—as other noble Lords have just said—and that this would include any budgetary and spatial development issues, and, secondly, that therefore they could then be a non-constituent member only in a CCA that was not their primary CCA.
We believe it must surely be the case that membership of a CCA is implicitly determined by the geography of an area. If it is the intention of the Secretary of State to have a pattern of overlapping CCAs across the country, will this not complicate the structure of local government rather than simplify and declutter the picture, which the Government have said they want to achieve?
Further to this, if we then have overlapping areas that are both combined mayoral authorities, to which mayor do the people of an area represented on more than one CCA relate? Can the Minister in his response clarify whether the population of that area get a vote in both mayoral elections, which of the mayors is responsible for delivering the economic development and/or regeneration of their area, and who is accountable?
This clause is predicated on the assumption that district council members are simply co-opted, junior partners in CCAs with no voting rights and only a passing interest in sitting in on meetings that they are not actively participating in. As has been said in debates on earlier amendments, we feel that this is, frankly, an insult to district councils.
As I said, my noble friend’s amendment is intended to probe why the Government appear to have set their face so firmly against the inclusion of district councils. Instead, we believe they should be at the heart of decision-making in CCAs since, as the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, said, they have powers over planning and economic development, not to mention that they are the councils with the highest percentage of public support. We strongly believe that they should be able to be full members.
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My Amendment 127A, which would remove an exemption meaning that consultation does not have to take place if
“the Secretary of State considers that no further consultation is necessary”.
is for clarification, following our debates on a previous day and the response then of the Minister, the noble Earl, Lord Howe. In that debate, he said there were no further requirements around consultation because it was covered completely in Clause 46—which, I remind noble Lords, says:
“The Secretary of State must carry out a public consultation unless”—
this is the final reason—
“the Secretary of State considers that no further consultation is necessary”.
As I mentioned on day 3 of Committee, that does concern me. Unless it is clearly demonstrated and transparent why that is no longer required, if we have publicly seen what has been said, what further action has been taken or not taken and the reasons surrounding that, then we are aware of how the Secretary of State has made his decision. As it stands, we are not. The noble Earl, Lord Howe, responded that he would
“take advice on why that clause is worded as it is”.—[Official Report, 27/2/23; col. 70.]
I do not know whether he has been able to do that as yet—I know there has not been much time—but it is important that we understand the wording. We felt
that, in order to have absolute certainty, the safety net that the Minister referred to should always exist, and the final justification for the Secretary of State not to have a carry out a public consultation because he does not think it necessary should be removed.
I turn to other noble Lords’ amendments. Amendment 70, as the noble Lord, Lord Foster of Bath, said in his introduction, is supported by the LGA and would tighten the wording of the Bill. It is important that each of the constituent councils appoints at least one of its elected members as a member of the CCA. That is what it says at the moment. The problem we have is that you end up with a situation where technically a CCA that was dominated by one political party could determine that those of the same political party could have greater representation, while others would have the minimum of, say, one representative. We touched on that in an earlier debate. It is important that we have clarity on this so that kind of political domination cannot happen in a way that ignores other councils’ representation.
The amendment from the noble Baroness, Lady Scott of Needham Market, is important and we strongly support what she is saying here. I note that her amendment, on representation from parish councils, is supported by NALC, the National Association of Local Councils, which is concerned that the Bill does not go far enough to empower and involve communities in devolution. I ought to draw noble Lords’ attention to the fact that I have a personal interest in this amendment as my husband is the chair of our parish council.
We think that devolving powers to areas in England that want them should not be confined to county level, regional level or principal authorities. If the Bill is to achieve what it is talking about—that is, levelling up and regeneration—it is important that local leaders at community level, such as town and parish councils, are empowered to support their communities. Parish councils need to be seen as an important and valued part of a combined authority area. As the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, said, they know their areas better than anyone else; they are close to what people think, want and need, so should be part of the process.
The experience of previous and current rounds of negotiations about local government reorganisation and devolution has highlighted the absence of involvement by parish councils or the relevant county association of local councils acting on their behalf, including involvement in scrutiny arrangements. We believe that this amendment will enhance and strengthen the overview and scrutiny of combined county authorities, and we agree that this, and the membership of an overview and scrutiny committee of a CCA, is a proportionate and appropriate way for local councils to have oversight of the proceedings and gives a level of accountability to those local parish and town councils.
We know that NALC has said that previous rounds have not seen the Government engaging effectively with local councils, so I ask the Minister: what engagement has taken place in the drafting of this legislation? Surely the Minister agrees that if there had been adequate engagement with local councils during the preparation of the Bill and following the publication
of the White Paper, there would be more consideration in the Bill of the role of local councils? That is not just town and parish, but districts, as has been previously mentioned.
Finally, we come to the two amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Shipley. First, we understand why the noble Lord has tabled Amendment 155, and the principle behind it and that of Amendment 156. We also understand that these amendments are probing, but we would not be able to fully support Amendment 155 unless there was a change in the Government’s stance on district councils being able to be only non-constituent members of a CCA. If the Government continue with their current stance that non-constituent membership is the only status available to those representing democratically elected councils, surely the Bill has to contain the provision that they can be entitled to vote. Can the Minister explain why the decision was taken by the Government that they cannot have a vote?
We are minded to support Amendment 156 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, but we need to understand much more about the purpose and role of, and criteria around the appointment of, associate members. Without that, it is very difficult to determine whether there should be any provision for associate members to be granted a vote at the CCA table. We believe that the Government have been extremely opaque about this category of membership. So I ask the Minister: when are we likely to get more detail?