Local Government Bill [HL]

Lord Rennard Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rennard]

My Lords, in supporting the Bill, many of us feel that it should not have been necessary to introduce it. On 22 March, this House considered the previous Government’s decision to proceed with the orders for the creation of the two unitary authorities on the basis of the existing boundaries of the Norwich and Exeter city councils. Many of us argued that the then Government were acting improperly in ignoring the criteria that they themselves had set for considering how decisions should be taken in relation to unitary status. When the orders were tabled, I attempted to put down an amendment to say that they should not proceed until the conclusion of the action for judicial review launched by Norfolk and Devon county councils. However, I was told that such an amendment, if carried, would not have the status of a fatal amendment that would stop the Government proceeding as they did; so my noble friend Lord Tope tabled a fatal amendment. He and others effectively demolished the case for the Government proceeding as they did—but sadly, the fatal amendment was not carried.

However, the position that we took was vindicated in the High Court last week. Mr Justice Ouseley, referring to the actions of the previous Government, concluded:

“On the face of it, the decisions taken by the Secretary of State and Minister simply made a mockery of the consultation process”.

Of the way in which the Government proceeded, he said:

“It was so unfair that his decisions were unlawful”.

The judgment of the court was damning. It described how the Secretary of State set out repeatedly the basis on which he would refuse proposals and, without any warning, adopted a wholly different approach and reached decisions that on the original approach he would not have reached. The way in which the target was moved was criticised by the court because it could have been signalled, and an opportunity to respond provided, without any—or at worst any great—delay. While the unfairness may not have been intended, it was described as “real, plain and unlawful”.

We should not be where we are today. Unnecessary cost to the public purse and a great deal of stress to many employees of the councils concerned have been caused. The House may not have carried the fatal amendment of my noble friend Lord Tope, but it did call for further consultation to be undertaken before steps were taken to proceed with the reorganisation. Perhaps the Minister will tell us if any consultation, which the High Court clearly considered necessary, followed this call, or whether no notice was taken of the request.

I believe that the case put against those orders, and therefore the case for this Bill, remains very strong. We considered it in March, and the Minister has referred again today to the fact that it is an extremely rare and very serious step for a Permanent Secretary to request a written instruction from a Secretary of State to implement orders because of deep concerns about the value for money to the public purse involved in a government plan. However, that is what the Permanent Secretary for the Department for Communities and Local Government—the department’s accounting officer—had to do when the previous Government decided to proceed in the way that they did.

It is also strange that the previous Government’s decision to make the orders for Exeter and Norwich was contrary to the expert recommendations of the independent Boundary Committee, which had carried out an exhaustive review of local government arrangements in Devon, Norfolk and Suffolk at the Government’s request. The Boundary Committee warned that the proposed—

[Baroness Hollis of Heigham]

Can the noble Lord tell us of anyone in the county of Norfolk—in the district council, county council or city council—who supported the Boundary Committee’s recommendation?

[Lord Rennard]

My Lords, I have not argued the case for the Boundary Committee’s proposals and am not doing so today. I am simply pointing out that the Boundary Committee, having been commissioned and given a remit by the Government, decided that the proposals which the Government subsequently put forward were simply not right. It said that they were unaffordable and it confirmed a previous rejection of exactly the same proposals by a previous Secretary of State in the same Government. The Boundary Committee also warned that there would be serious questions over the ability of the rest of Devon to function effectively as a unit of local government if Exeter alone became a unitary local authority.

The House of Lords Merits Committee drew the House’s special attention to the two orders. The committee found that the unitary proposals did not meet the Government’s five strict criteria for implementation. It said that the Government had failed to provide sufficient information to explain their departure from the criteria, and the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments expressed doubt about whether the orders could be lawfully made. These are all reasons why we approved in this House Motions of regret tabled by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, calling on the Government not to proceed with the orders without further consultation. There is no change in the logic of the arguments that were supported in this House on 22 March, and the same logic therefore dictates support for the Bill today.