King’s Speech

Lord Wharton of Yarm Excerpts

Wednesday 8th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wharton of Yarm (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the maiden speech of my noble friend Lord Houchen of High Leven, not least because he is my friend who now happens to be noble, and it is a pleasure to sit with him on these Benches. We can see already the passion he for has the area of Teesside, the Tees Valley, where he is the directly elected metro mayor. I first encountered him when he was young, idealistic and enthusiastic and joined my campaign team in the run-up to the 2010 general election. In that general election, I was successful in the seat of Stockton South by the narrowest of margins, just as he went on to be successful in 2017 by being elected by an extremely narrow margin as the first metro Mayor of Tees Valley. A matter of weeks later, I was rather less successful when the electorate who had once supported me decided that my time was up, so it is a strange twist of fate to end up sitting next to him here. Whereas my electoral success came to an end, he has managed to combine continued—indeed, increasing—electoral success in Tees Valley with joining us and continuing, as we can all see, to passionately advocate for the area from which we both come.

When I was Northern Powerhouse Minister, I took the then Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill through the Commons. An unexpected benefit was that Tees Valley elected my noble friend as its first metro mayor. When I look back at that time, I do not think anyone in that area would have expected the extent of the achievement and development that has now been delivered, the improvement and transformation that has been possible and the investment that has flowed into an area that very much needed it.

It speaks to the more collegiate nature, sometimes, of this place than what we used to see in the elected politics at the other end of the building that my noble friend Lord Houchen’s promise to save the airport ultimately meant the nationalisation of that airport by him as the directly elected mayor. This policy presented some challenges to Conservative colleagues who found themselves visiting. I remember that the then party chairman, who was coming up for his first visit, rang me to ask whether there were any issues of which he should be aware just after my noble friend had been elected. I pointed out that one of the pledges was the nationalisation of the local airport, at which point he corrected me and said, “No, it’s not. It’s the regionalisation of the airport”. That is the advantage of devolution. It allows us to think outside the box to do what is right for areas in ways that cross lines that sometimes party politics in a national sense do not make quite as easy. It speaks to the importance in devolution of having a directly elected mayor as a figurehead, somebody who can drive that forward and become a spokesperson for their area, and who can, through the passion that they have for the area which they represent, lead and deliver improvements for its people.

That is why I want not just to follow the maiden speech of my noble friend Lord Houchen of High Leven but to talk today on devolution, the discussion of devolution which we have already had from some noble Lords and the Government’s agenda for it. When I was the Northern Powerhouse Minister, one of the things I had to do was to travel around the country to persuade local council and local authority leaders that devolution would offer something for their area and that the devolution of powers and the creation of combined authorities would benefit the communities they represented.

The policy of the Government at that time, although not required in the legislation, was that devolution must by necessity come with a directly elected metro mayor. We found that this presented challenges in some areas where local authority leaders saw a directly elected mayor as someone who would compete with their status, authority or power. We found that the idea of a directly elected mayor caused concern because local authority leaders were not sure who that person might be or what party they might represent. I found myself meeting groups of local authority leaders who came up with all sorts of governance proposals which fell short of directly electing an individual to speak for an area and to drive forward the policy of devolution and the powers that would be given to that area. I found myself often having to say in simple terms, “No mayor, no deal”, and it made me rather unpopular with a number of individuals who were against that element of the policy.

The experience since is that areas with devolution and a mayor—a figurehead, a directly elected person, to drive that agenda and be a single point of accountability for those devolved powers—have seen the greatest success. The Tees Valley in Teesside is a superb example of that, but there are others. Many of the mayors have now become nationally known names and individuals who genuinely speak for the areas which they represent. The Government propose to continue a programme of devolution, and there are a number of areas in which new mayors will be created. But there is also, of course, talk of devolution without mayors, or of mayors with limited powers, and of different models that may be considered and put forward.

For what it is worth, my experience has been that, where you get the right mayor, it can make the most significant difference and have the most significant impact. I encourage the Government to look very closely at where it has worked best—Tees Valley being a very good example—and to do everything they can to ensure that, where powers are devolved, it is in a way that also comes with accountability and the point of focus that an elected individual offers. That allows streamlining for businesses that want to invest; the strategic co-ordination that comes from having somebody with a vision for an area who is empowered to drive it forward; and the ability for the sometimes complex disagreements between local authorities to be overcome in the interests of economic growth. I hope that we will see more devolution and see it done in the right way.

There are significant challenges with some local authority boundaries and their inconsistencies—particularly, for example, when it comes to the interaction between police and crime commissioners and directly elected mayors. Where it is possible to do so, I think that combining those roles is a sensible thing. However, it is often not possible because combined authority areas do not entirely overlap with police and crime commissioner boundaries, which makes the electoral reality of merging those roles difficult. This is something the Government would do well to look at, whether that requires the reshaping of combined authorities and police force areas or whatever might be necessary in order to deliver it.

It is with pleasure that I got the chance to congratulate and speak after the maiden speech of my noble friend. I am sure that there will be many more speeches and I am sure that noble Lords will hear much more about the Tees Valley and Teesside and its successes. I am confident that, for as long as my noble friend remains in place there, there will be many more successes and investments to talk about.