Draft Northamptonshire (Structural Changes) (Supplementary Provision and Amendment) Order 2021 Debate
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Mike Amesbury
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Draft Northamptonshire (Structural Changes) (Supplementary Provision and Amendment) Order 2021
Mike Amesbury Excerpts(3 years, 9 months ago)
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Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher.
I am happy to join the Minister in supporting the creation of the new unitary authorities. I put on record the Opposition’s thanks to the parliamentarians, councillors, officers, residents and indeed the trade unions for their work in going forward to that transition. It is not the most controversial matter before us today, but I have a few questions for the Minister.
We have been waiting quite some time for the publication of the devolution White Paper, which currently does not have a timetable for publication. Given during the pandemic we have seen the serious limitations of over-centralisation on full display, and the Government have worked in partnership with areas that have metro mayors and combined authorities, we have seen the power and benefits of the resources that have been transferred from Westminster to localities up and down the country. Devolution should therefore be a process built from the bottom up, which touches on some of the Minister’s comments about the consultation and the evolution of the unitary authority. The Government should not block or delay publication of the White Paper. It was in the Queen’s Speech and the Conservative manifesto, so I would certainly welcome an update.
I have a vested interest in my patch of Cheshire and Warrington, for which I have advocated devolution along with other parliamentarians and local council leaders. I would like to know how the Minister sees the overall devolution agenda progressing as we recover from the impact of the pandemic. Will the Government keep their promise to fully fund councils for the costs of the pandemic so that we do not see huge losses of services across the country, and so that we do indeed build better and fairer in the future? I thank the Minister for his comments today.