English Devolution and Local Government

Lord Fuller Excerpts

Wednesday 12th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that genuine advocacy of local government; I share his faith in local government delivering for the people it serves. The White Paper sets out this ambitious new framework for English devolution, moving power out of Westminster to those who take decisions for and with their communities. We want to see all of England access devolved power by establishing the strategic authorities, and a number of councils working together over areas that people recognise—that is the important point, because this is coming from local areas—and that can make the key decisions to drive economic growth.

My noble friend is quite right that elections being postponed to drive forward such programmes is not unique to our Government. Following these decisions, of the 33 council elections originally scheduled for May 2025, 24 will take place, with nine being delayed to May 2026. Previous Governments have taken similar decisions that it was necessary to postpone elections to give councils the space to do the work necessary.

[Lord Fuller (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord referred to consistency between authorities. The average number of electors in a London borough is 173,000, and in a small unitary it is 237,000, but the Government plan to have new councils consisting of half a million people. That is inconsistent with democracy, and with what the noble Lord said.

Yesterday, I asked the noble Baroness what we are going to do about electoral equality, and she answered that the Boundary Commission will work to ensure consistency within authorities. But the thrust of my question is: what about consistency between them? I have the fourth-oldest outstanding Written Question on the Order Paper, on page 16, which asks about the capacity of the Boundary Commission to undertake this work. When does the noble Baroness intend to answer my Question—or would she like to accompany me to the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum in Dorset on a day trip, where she can understand how the fundamental principles of equality of representation across all electoral areas can be ensured?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his offer to visit the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum. I have already been there. However, I did pick up his point about the need to enhance and promote visits to that museum; it is a very worthwhile visit.

I answered a number of questions yesterday about the electoral reviews in the areas concerned. It is very important that the Local Government Boundary Commission for England is allowed to do its job properly. The department has, of course, been talking to the commission throughout this process about the work it will need to do as a result of the changes we are making to local government. It is ready to help both with boundary reviews, where necessary, and with the boundaries for the new authorities and the boundaries within those authorities. I explained yesterday the criteria that the commission uses to do that. It has very strict criteria, and I am sure it will keep to those, as it has done during all the time it has been operating.