English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Allison Gardner Excerpts

Monday 24th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Manuela Perteghella]

I thank the hon. Member for his support in Committee. We know that two-tier governments—district councils in the shires in particular—will be abolished, and town and parish councils will have to take on more assets and deliver even more services. However, as I said in Committee, the voice of town and parish councils is completely absent from the Bill. At present, decision making at regional level often feels remote from the communities it serves. Given the significant powers that mayors hold over transport, housing, skills and regeneration, it is imperative that local councils and community representatives are consistently engaged rather than consulted only at a mayor’s discretion.

Fundamentally, this measure reflects the very purpose of devolution: to bring power and decision making closer to the people whose lives are directly affected. It is a simple, practical step that would not require additional funding or alter existing powers but would deliver better communication, co-ordination and community engagement.

This also links to wider concerns about governance and geography. In Warwickshire, there is a strong case for two new unitaries for the north and south of the county, rather than one large super-unitary. Analysis has shown that the two-unitary model performs better in Warwickshire than a single county-wide authority, and public support is clear, with 73% of residents of south Warwickshire favouring two councils. Several Liberal Democrat amendments on today’s paper, including those I have tabled, would work to safeguard proper local engagement in any future devolution arrangements.

The Bill empowers local and strategic authorities to encourage visitors, yet it contains no statutory requirement to involve town and parish councils in this process. My amendment 27 goes to the heart of the need for our strategic authorities to work with places they represent. Tourism is not a side issue for Stratford-on-Avon; it is central to our local economy, our cultural life and our international reputation. Stratford town council plays a leading role in major events such as the Shakespeare birthday celebrations, which bring visitors from across the world, demonstrating the vital contribution of town councils to cultural exchange and soft power, yet the Bill includes no duty for any new strategic authority to engage town and parish councils when shaping tourism plans. That is a real risk for a place such as Stratford, which has so much to offer but depends on constructive partnership to keep thriving.

Amendment 27 would put that duty in law and require a published record of engagement, so that towns in my constituency are not overlooked in regional strategies. Taken together, these measures give local communities a genuine voice in tourism planning. Town and parish councils know their areas best: the attractions, the infrastructure needs and the opportunities for growth. This amendment also promotes inclusive planning. Too often, small towns, villages and rural areas are overlooked in broader strategies despite their vital contribution to the economy. By embedding their perspectives, we will support equitable growth across both urban and rural areas. In short, these amendments are practical, transparent and community focused. They would strengthen devolution by ensuring that local voices were heard, respected and reflected in tourism policy, thereby delivering strategies that are both effective and rooted in the communities they serve.

Briefly, new clause 74, submitted by my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade), would be an important addition to the Bill to give local areas the ability to limit and regulate junk food advertising in their communities. The new clause would make a positive impact on health, especially that of our young people. If the Government truly want devolution to succeed, they should accept these proposals, along with the wider set of amendments tabled by my Liberal Democrat colleagues.

[Dr Allison Gardner (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

One of the advantages of this Government’s plan for devolution is that it offers the opportunity to address the country’s many regional inequalities. Indeed, strategic authorities, particularly those with mayoralties, have the ability to address inequalities within individual regions. The Bill’s original clause 43 addresses health, wellbeing and public services reform, and it is Government amendments 116 and 118 and amendment 172 that I wish to discuss.

This section of the Bill confers a new duty on all combined authorities and combined county authorities to have regard to improving the health of persons in their area and reducing health inequalities between persons in their area. Amendment 172 outlines the requirements for a health inequalities strategy, which may include the metrics for healthy life expectancy, infant mortality rates and poverty, including child poverty. My constituency of Stoke-on-Trent South and the villages has the interesting profile of sitting across a number of councils: the two unitaries—Stoke-on-Trent city council and Staffordshire county council—as well as Stafford borough council and Staffordshire Moorlands district council. I was also a councillor in neighbouring Newcastle-under-Lyme for several years, so I have the advantage of a broad view across the long-recognised area of north Staffordshire. I should add that there is a road in my constituency, Uttoxeter Road, that has five lots of bins from five different councils, which is quite an achievement.

There are clear inequalities across all areas, and of course there are pockets of wealth and deprivation in all. However, the health statistics outline a harsh reality. When we compare Staffordshire county council and Stoke-on-Trent city council’s female healthy life expectancy, we see that in Staffordshire it is 63, compared with the national average of 61.5, but in Stoke it is just 55. Men in Stoke can expect a healthy life until they are 56, compared with 63 in Staffordshire, with the national average being 61. We see the same for overall life expectancy, with Staffordshire above average and Stoke below average. I have on many occasions raised the shocking fact that Stoke-on-Trent routinely scores highest for infant mortality rates, and the shocking statistic that a baby born in Stoke-on-Trent will have half the chance of surviving to their fifth birthday than the national average.

[Mike Reader]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this, because we have a similar issue between in Northamptonshire. We have a 15-year difference in life expectancy between Northampton town centre and rural areas such as Brackley. We are talking about an area of 20 or 30 miles. Does she agree that, although it is positive to see changes already in the Bill to address this, more could be done in the other place to improve the Bill further?

[Dr Gardner]

I agree with my hon. Friend. It is with great sadness that I see this fight between cities and rural areas that demonises the city areas. Around Stoke-on-Trent we have a doughnut economy. Stoke generates wealth for north Staffordshire and it filters out to the rural areas, yet we hear people saying, “No to Stoke, no to Stoke.” People need to understand that we are all one in north Staffordshire.

I offer a new fact: the under-75 mortality rate from all causes for Staffordshire, as of the 2023 statistics, was 319.5, compared with an England national average rate of 341.6. However, in Stoke the under-75 mortality rate from all causes was a whopping 474. It is understandable that any devolution has to address this disparity, and I look at this broadening to help us to do that. I stress that this does not mean that improving Stoke’s outcomes means we are going to take away or reduce Staffordshire’s. This is often a knee-jerk fear reaction for some, and a tool for the Conservative and Reform parties to use for political scaremongering. I am saddened to hear the views on this of the right hon. Member for Staffordshire Moorlands (Dame Karen Bradley), who I greatly respect and personally like. I wish that there could be some understanding and cross-conversation on this issue.

I also wish to speak in support of Government amendments 116 and 118, which address health improvements, health inequality duties and health determinants. The Government are right to add environmental factors including air quality and access to green space and bodies of water. We have talked about boundaries. In my own constituency, the Meir tunnel has high levels of poor air quality in an area with high levels of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but fixing that issue is extremely difficult as it is on a boundary with neighbouring councils.

The value of green space is also an issue close to my heart. When Meir park, a much-loved green space, had all its trees knocked down, out of the blue, it caused some residents genuine fear, upset and hurt. Also, Trentham gardens are in the border area covered by Staffordshire county council, Stafford borough council and Stoke-on-Trent city council, with ensuing traffic problems. It has the most beautiful lake, and I one day I hope to find the time to go paddle boarding on it again. The quality of our environment is vital to mental and physical health, and I hope that the value of green space, good air quality and access to the advantage of bodies of water will always be central to any policy.

In Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, we are looking to achieve an enhanced north Staffordshire unitary authority under local government reorganisation, and I am particularly supportive of the broader proposal submitted by Staffordshire Moorlands district council, which sensibly outlines travel-to-work areas, economic functional areas, cultural links and transport links. We sit at the beginning of a north midlands growth corridor to Derby and Nottingham that offers this country a huge opportunity to create a strategic centre for growth across the middle of England.

While we have still to decide a devolution model for North Staffordshire, southern Staffordshire and Staffordshire as a whole, I ask that we think radically and consider our east-west links to the east midlands and the potential of a north midlands strategic authority. Whatever we end up with, I ask the Minister for more details for Stoke and Staffordshire as to the plans and timelines for devolution.

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[Paul Holmes]

I am slightly disappointed with the tone the hon. Lady is taking. If we are talking about devolution in a devolution debate, she should respect the right of an hon. Member elected by their constituents, and of councillors elected by local people, to say they do not want local government reorganisation. Why is she supporting a gun-to-the-head mentality when local authority leaders do not want to go through with it?

[Dr Gardner]

I reject the emotive use of terms like “gun to the head”. The Stoke-on-Trent city council and Staffordshire Moorlands district council proposals on LGR have been approved, and they are the democratically elected councils for those areas. The wider Staffordshire county council, which is now under Reform, had one proposal out of the blue, and now does not want reorganisation either; it is chaotic.

We cannot keep having this. This is something that will happen, and I say to my constituents, “This is going to happen, so we need to make it work for us.” I need people to start saying yes to the opportunity, yes to growth and yes to the future.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

Before I call the next speaker, I remind Members to address their comments to the business in front of the House, which is the remaining stages of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.

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[Lewis Cocking]

The hon. Lady makes an interesting point with which I have great sympathy. We have to try to take different communities together, but we should not compare the rural county of Hertfordshire with a significant number of large towns that are not interlinked naturally by roads and railways or by people’s jobs. Lots of my constituents work in London and would never, or hardly ever, make the journey of about an hour along the A414 to Watford or Hemel Hempstead. The situation is very different. I can understand how devolution works when there is a single city centre and why in some respects it works in our towns and city regions where there is a single space, but I do not understand how it will work in practice when there are a number of towns all of the same size.

[Dr Gardner]

In Staffordshire, which is quite rural—I have Stoke-on-Trent city centre in my constituency—we have that shared interlinking, and it is very important to the development of north Staffordshire. Staffordshire Moorlands council has shared services with High Peak in Derbyshire. Much of Stoke-on-Trent city council service provision is in the neighbouring town of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and likewise with Stafford borough, which uses Cannock Chase services. Shared and interlinked services exist in rural areas and can work together.

[Lewis Cocking]

I was talking about the physical aspects of the transport currently in place, and the transport in Hertfordshire makes it very difficult for such interlinking services. The hon. Lady makes an interesting point around shared services of councils. The Government have said on a number of occasions that they have brought forward this community empowerment Bill and devolution in order to make councils more efficient and save loads of money. I do not believe it will save lots of money, for the reasons the hon. Lady has rightly pointed out: many councils already have those shared services. There are lots of councils with shared planning departments or shared audit, and indeed combined authorities also have shared back-office functions.

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[Danny Beales]

I thank my hon. Friend for that contribution and wholeheartedly agree. We should be guided by the principle of subsidiarity. Power should be given and exercised as locally as possible. Clearly, some powers have to be exercised in this place, at national level, and also at regional level it makes sense to act, and the mayor rightly has the ability to co-ordinate our transport system in London. We do not want multiple decisions about transport infrastructure such as our tube network.

[Dr Gardner]

I wanted to intervene on the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking), but he had on his feet for over 20 minutes and I decided to give him a break. However, I want to raise that issue now. Much has been made about the conflict of planning—local planning going right to the boundaries, creating issues for infrastructure planning, which often sits at the wider unitary level. Devolution and wider strategic authority oversight, including greater planning oversight, will help to address some of the challenges and stresses we can face. Is that something my hon. Friend sees in the London boroughs?

[Danny Beales]

That is almost certainly true. There are strategic issues that need to be considered, and whether they are strategic powers for planning or licensing, as we are discussing in some of the amendments, there is the need for a greater role for regional mayors and authorities. It is right that local communities can respond to local issues, but there is a need for guiding infrastructure decisions on things such as heating networks, energy networks and data centre networks, and co-ordinating them at regional level makes a great deal of sense. Despite the need for greater decision making at a local and regional level, we still live in one of the most centralised political systems in the western world.

Our communities must be able to meet the challenges that they face, and that is why I welcome the raft of new powers in the Bill and the Government amendments. They will drive growth and provide opportunities to respond to new local challenges, now and in the future.

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[Danny Beales]

My hon. Friend describes perfectly the impacts that we see. Even in outer London and Hillingdon, we see the impact of the short-term let sector. We see it near Heathrow, which is very proximate to my constituency.

New clause 31 would enable differential charging. It does not mandate what the charges would be, or that one charge would apply to all sectors, so there would be the potential to charge the informal short-term let sector more per night or day than the formal stay sector.

[Dr Gardner]

I am quite interested in what my hon. Friend says about the differential approach. As a councillor, I know that Stoke-on-Trent is not necessarily known for its tourism industry, although that is absolutely a failure on the part of the country and of everybody, because we have great tourism attractions in Stoke. I have seen that when we have Airbnbs on family estates, and different people come and go, it creates an awful lot of unrest, antisocial behaviour and real concern about the revolving door of different people, which upsets local residents. [Interruption.] My apologies. Does he agree that the proposed approach would be of benefit?

[Danny Beales]

I certainly agree. The costs that result from the visitor economy are not adequately met by the tax revenue for local authorities or mayoral authorities.