Local Government: Electoral Quotas

Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Fuller, for asking an important Question on fair electoral arrangements for local government following the proposed local government reorganisation. Of course, this is a matter for the independent Local Government Boundary Commission for England to consider, but my department is liaising closely with it to ensure that it is involved at the appropriate time to make sure that we have fair electoral arrangements across the area of any new unitary authorities.

[Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab)]

My Lords—

[A noble Lord]

Order!

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am delighted to hear that the noble Lord is educating himself on the socialist principle of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. I hope that that will continue; I am happy to help if he needs any support with it.

Basically, I believe that the noble Lord is comparing apples with pears here. The Local Government Boundary Commission for England provides very good guidance on determining councillor numbers. When it is decided where the new unitaries will be, it will look at the overall size of councils and then at warding and divisional boundaries within those councils—I am sure that the noble Lord has been through this process himself. It does that with fairness and equity; it bases its views on electoral equality, reflecting local communities and interests and responding to local views—as it has done for many decades and will, I am sure, continue to do.

[Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab)]

My Lords, I apologise for being too keen.

Does my noble friend the Minister recognise that, if one simply thinks about numbers, it can end up being a perverse electoral solution that undermines local people’s faith in who represents them? When community cohesion is totally ignored for numbers, many people begin to think, “Well, I don’t know who represents me and what they’re doing”. Will the Minister try to make sure that any guidance for the future takes account of communities as well as of stark numbers?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely correct. There has to be a focus on numbers to ensure that they are roughly equitable, but there are also other important considerations. Reflecting local communities and their interests is part of the boundary commission’s work, as is responding to local views. Whenever we have reviews of electoral boundaries, those local views should be properly taken into account. I will of course try to ensure that this continues.

English Devolution

Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his advice on Rutland. I am happy to confirm that. On the 500,000 number, it is very strange: ever since July, people have been saying repeatedly that we need a guideline number, but when we give a guideline number, they say, “No, not that number. That is not the right number”. I hope that was not how the Conservatives did the accounting, because that would be a problem.

The 500,000 figure is intended as a guideline; it is what works best for local areas. I imagine that some sort of de minimis size will be incorporated in the Minister’s thinking as we go through this programme. We feel that 500,000 is around the right size to get the effectiveness and efficiency of delivery and the scale of managing the strategic requirements in a local area; that is why we have said 500,000. We are looking for councils to come forward with their own proposals about how this works for their local areas. On the other question, this is intended to cover all areas of England, so they are all welcome to come forward with proposals—including Rutland.

[Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for this Statement and I congratulate her and the Government on entering what are very difficult areas, as I remember well. One thing that has happened in the last 14 years—I know some noble Lords on the other Benches approved of this—was the abolition of the Audit Commission. Whatever people’s view about that, it has left nothing to give guidance and understanding to the combined authorities about audit. I hope that the Government will introduce something that gives clear guidance and authority to the audit process in these areas. Local people have the right to know that money invested there is being spent well and according to best value. Had we had that, I believe that the mayoral authority in Tees Valley may not have had the real problems that it has had, where we have ended up with 90% of the money that is invested, or of the contracts that are given there, being invested in two men who now live in Dubai. That is not best value for the public or what anybody intended in setting these issues up. I hope the Government will take hold of how we audit combined authorities.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a good point. It is impossible to overstate the importance of having an accountable and transparent process for local government. I mentioned in my opening remarks that it is an absolute scandal that we have found ourselves in the position we have in relation to local government audit, with 1,000 audits outstanding—that is just not good enough. Accountability is absolutely vital. As well as a complete review of local government audit systems, and making sure that we have an audit service for all of local government that is fit for purpose, we will consult on something for mayoral combined areas. I do not know what it will be called, but it will be the equivalent of a local public accounts committee. We think that the work of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament is helpful and useful, and we will consult with local government on whether a local public accounts committee, along similar lines, would be useful.

Planning Committees: Reform

Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. I must admit that, at my local authority, you had to have training before you went on the planning committee, and I had assumed that that was the case everywhere. It is not. Part of the consultation on the working paper is the introduction of mandatory training. We are considering a wide range of implementation options, and we look forward to working with stakeholders. There are great examples of training around the country. However, it is inconsistent—more inconsistent than I had realised—and we need to find out where the best practice is so that we can work nationally on that issue. I totally agree with her point that the public will have more confidence if they know that people have had training.

[Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab)]

My Lords, I agree with my noble friend that local plans are central to the whole planning process and a vital way of involving local people in what the overall future of their area should look like. Is she able to tell us how many of those local plans are actually up to date? What work is outstanding from local authorities to make sure that they all are up to date?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My noble friend is quite right to mention that. The Government have a stated intention of making sure that all local authorities have an up-to-date local plan in place. That was not the case when we came into government. A great deal of work has gone on with local authorities to ensure that they are making progress on their local plans. In the National Planning Policy Framework publication today, we see more enforcement steps that we intend to take if local authorities have not produced their local plans. The Secretary of State has been quite clear that, if encouragement does not work, we will use our powers to step in and do it for people. I hope local authorities will realise that the best way to make their local plans is with their councillors and their local communities.

Teesworks Programme: Audit

Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top Excerpts

Monday 29th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the work the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, does in local government, and I understand the deep emotions that he talks about, because there are outstanding questions to which the public deserve answers. We understand that this issue, like all local issues, is emotive. This is evidenced by it being raised in this House and in the other place several times. In fact, the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, has asked this question before. This Government believe that scrutiny and transparency are important. However, we must carefully consider the mayor’s response, due in September, and we will consider any further action to take when we receive it. We are not ruling out any options, and one option could be requesting the NAO to review.

[Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab)]

My Lords, as the Minister knows, this is an issue that the people of Teesside take very strongly. When I was working in the Tees Valley across a number of constituencies during the election, they really wanted transparency. They want to know what has happened to the money that the public, via the Government and other agencies, have put in and whether the arrangement, which gives 90% of the benefit to two individuals and only 10% to the public, can stand up. I appreciate that the Minister will bring the report, but will he also ask his department to look at an overall system of audit and accountability, because that disappeared when the Audit Commission disappeared, and there is no coherent across-the-board system for the devolved mayors. We want to give them more power, but if they get more power there must be transparency and proper accountability.

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for raising those important issues. It is true that the previous Government scrapped the Audit Commission and replaced it with a fragmented, locally led audit regime that is failing. This Government are committed to overhauling local audit and restoring better value for money for taxpayers. We are looking closely at all the evidence, and we will set out our plans, including legislation, shortly. I must remind the House that until we get the response of the Mayor of Tees Valley we cannot explore the options. We will wait for the response to the 26 recommendations which the mayor was asked to look at and then take further action.