Draft Tees Valley Combined Authority Order 2016

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Tuesday 15th March 2016 General Committees

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bone, and to follow all my hon. Friends from the north. The Opposition believe that combined authorities and devolution, both of which were trail-blazed by the previous Labour Government, can bring many benefits, not least a more co-ordinated approach to local government and services. We are therefore fiercely proud of our Labour-held councils in the north that have come together in these times of savage and disproportionate cuts to do the very best for their local population. That is exactly what the five councils and the LEP in in the Tees Valley have done.

However, that is where the similarities between the Opposition and the Government end. The five councils in the Tees Valley that have come together in a shadow combined authority to enable devolution to take place have done so after suffering combined cuts of £243.2 million since 2010. It is shameless that the Government awarded transitional funding to more affluent councils just to buy off their Back Benchers and ignored areas such as Tees Valley, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North said.

The devolution deal for the Tees Valley offers £15 million, but £15 million for a loss of more than £200 million is hardly much in the way of compensation. Will the Minister explain why his Government feel that that is enough fiscal devolution for an area that has been hit by significant unemployment, compounded by his Government’s failure, despite the gallant efforts of my hon. Friend the Member for Redcar, to save the SSI steelworks, and the job losses at Boulby potash?

Eventually, the combined authority will have responsibility for education, skills and employment devolved to it. It is of course right that local areas are enabled to match local skills to employers and grow the future workforce, but that is against a backdrop of a Government-led further education review that will undoubtedly see the closure of further education colleges, which are the very places that would provide those vital skills to the future workforce. How on earth can the Minister reconcile the threatened closure of local colleges with the devolving of education, skills and employment?

Another key factor in the economic development of any area is transport. Connectivity and good transport links are vital for any area and the Minister knows as well as I do that the north-east has suffered from underinvestment in transport in recent years. He will know well the fact often cited by the Opposition that while £2,700 per head is spent on transport in London, a paltry £5 is spent in the north. It is good to see that transport functions will be delegated to the combined authority, but I have a concern about the devolution of central funding. That process will be pivotal in allowing the Tees Valley to plan and execute transport plans that benefit its community, but those funds are subject to the next spending review, so there is a level of uncertainty. What assurances can the Minister give that funding will be adequate? When does he expect an announcement on that will be forthcoming?

As elsewhere, there is a lot of local frustration about the Government’s insistence on an elected mayor, and rightly so when in Tees Valley the mayor will be able to act autonomously. Will the Minister clarify exactly which powers the Mayor will be able to exercise autonomously?

The order makes no provision for the creation of a directly elected mayor, despite that having been forced into the Tees Valley devolution agreement. Neither the public nor the five councils want an elected mayor. The provision of a mayor, though integral to the workings of a combined authority, is being kept separate from the discussion, which adds to the opaque nature of the process we have witnessed throughout all the Government’s devolution deals. One hinges on the other, so it is confusing—in fact it is misleading—to separate the two things. Given that the mayor will be the chair of the combined authority, can the Minister explain why there is no mention of them in the order, considering that it is about establishing the combined authority?

The Government say that an elected mayor ensures strong democratic accountability, yet the public were not involved at all in this matter—the public consultation did not even mention the election of a mayor. In fact, the Government have no convincing public mandate for their proposals. Just 11 representations from local residents were received by the Government on the proposals for a combined authority yet the council’s consultation, despite being over the busy Christmas period, was far more robust and received far more responses. I wonder what the Government are doing wrong in their consultation with local people.

I and others have growing unease about some of the tenets of the Government’s combined authority devolution agenda. Our local leaders and councillors have taken what is on offer because it would be neglectful not to take any powers that could enable them to improve the lives of their local population and communities, but the Government, as always, seem to be saying one thing and doing another. They are devolving cuts and services they have decimated so that they do not need to be held to account for the damage they have done, and they are showing total reticence in actually delivering anything that they have promised to local areas.

Just yesterday, the leaders of the Tees Valley combined authority wrote to the Chancellor expressing serious concerns that promised progress on the proposed deal has not been forthcoming. There is a real sense of disillusionment. In the letter they state that

“we do not believe that what is now on the table is consistent with the vision that we or you”—

not you, Mr Bone, but the Chancellor—

“signed up to last October”.

The Government like to spout about the northern powerhouse from the Dispatch Box, but when it comes down to the detail and delivery, they have been exposed once again as being full of style over substance and opportunism over accountability.

I have one final question for the Minister. Given that much of what we have discussed today is subject to future spending reviews and future legislation, what is to stop the Government pulling the rug from underneath these areas and reneging on the agreements and funding? Can he give us a cast-iron guarantee that that will not happen? It is worth noting that I do not wish to divide the Committee, but the Minister, his colleagues and the Government need to go away and think very carefully about some of the issues that I and my hon. Friends have raised. He is doing himself and the Government no favours if he is not prepared to come good on his word and deliver what they have promised to our local areas.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

I asked the Minister a series of relevant questions and my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham North has raised a number of relevant points. Simply to dismiss them as irrelevant and separate from this statutory instrument is plain wrong and shows an ignorance of how all the issues are interlinked. Finance, funding and other things have an impact on local areas and will have an effect on this. I hope that the Minister will respond. To be very clear, the Opposition are supportive of devolution, but we would do it differently. We would be far more ambitious than the Government.

--- Later in debate ---

[James Wharton]

It is not for me to tell the Tees Valley how to use the money that would become available to it, but £15 million a year is the starting agreement. There will then be an assessment of how the money is used, with an opportunity to expand the fund. It will be for the Tees Valley to look at how it best wants to use it—whether it is to borrow or invest, and what it wants to invest it in.

The fund is £450 million over the life of the commitment that the Government have made, and there is potential to increase it when we look at how it is used and how economic growth is generated with it. Ultimately, it will be for the local authority, the combined authority and the mayor, when they are elected, to determine how it is best used. It is welcome and it is additional funding coming to the Tees Valley that would not be coming but for the agreements that have been made and for the deal that is being done. The deal, important as it is, moves closer to completion through what we are here to discuss.

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

Is the Minister seriously suggesting that £15 million is compensation for more than £200 million-worth of cuts? He cannot be for real.

[James Wharton]

As I have tried to explain, the Minister is trying to say that what is happening in local government spending with the need to bring down the deficit that the Labour Government left the country with—the economic disaster that we inherited in 2010—