Mayoral Referendums

Rory Stewart Excerpts

Wednesday 25th April 2012 Westminster Hall

[Rory Stewart (Penrith and The Border) (Con)]

I pay great tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers) and, in fact, to the three Cs showing the common sense at the heart of local government: Cleethorpes, Coventry and my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (John Stevenson).

It is a great privilege to be in the Chamber today, because the debate shows why local government matters. The reason why the debate is good is that it is one of those rare occasions in the House of Commons when one feels that people know what they are talking about. Often in the Chamber of the House, I wonder where the expertise is. In Westminster Hall today, we have more than 20 years’ expertise and all the speakers are talking about something that matters to them and that they know about. That is why we should all support local government, more local government and still more local government.

The past 120 years have seen an astonishing destruction of British local government, resulting in the situation that all of us see day to day in our surgeries: the great sense of ennui. The right hon. Member for Coventry North East (Mr Ainsworth) referred to the anonymity of councillors—the sense that people do not know to whom to speak. We continually encounter citizens’ frustration with the system and their terrible feeling that at any moment, some regulation, law or arbitrary directive from an anonymous and unseen official will get in the way of what they want. Whether it is the imposition of a supermarket on a town where nobody wants it, the imposition of a wind turbine on a valley where nobody wants it or the closure of a care home, a community hospital or a school, local communities show again and again that they are desperate to express their desires, but they have no way of doing so.

That, of course, brings local communities to their Members of Parliament, and a great thing that is for us, as Members of Parliament, because we enjoy it enormously; it takes us away from the strange, arbitrary abstractions of the House of Commons and gives us something useful and practical to do. From a selfish point of view, we are grateful that we can deal with such local issues, which are more real than the issues we deal with in the House of Commons most of the time. However, we should not be dealing with such things, which should not, ultimately, rest with the House of Commons. It would be better for us, local communities and Britain, if we located such issues with a directly elected local mayor.

That is true partly because Britain and British identity have changed. Britain is no longer obsessed with projecting national power. The fact that we are, for some bizarre reason, completely obsessed with Scandinavia —watching Danish television or looking earnestly at Finland, wondering whether its educational statistics are better than ours—shows that this country is increasingly interested with the local, not with the projection of grand power.

We are therefore interested in making things work well for our own intimate communities, and we have astonishing skills when it comes to delivering such things—skills that did not exist 120 years ago. However much we grumble about education, this country is far more deeply educated, healthy and engaged than it has ever been, and we see that in our performance at local level. Everybody in this room will see the most astonishing things being done in their local communities. In Cumbria, for example, we have seen the creation of affordable housing in Crosby Ravensworth driven entirely by the local community. We have also seen something similar on broadband, and we are now getting fibre-optic cables to the most remote valleys in the whole of England. After perhaps 1,000 hours’ work, communities are signing up 80% of the people in them for broadband, waiving wayleaves and working out how to dig the trenches for the fibre-optic cables.

However, we are not going far enough, and we could do much more. The sad truth behind a lot of these stories is that, in the absence of a local champion, things are not working as quickly or as well as they should. To take the example of broadband, officials are still telling us, despite all the work that local communities have done, that state aid regulations and procurement complications are delaying projects, so they will take 12 months longer than they need to. Communities are being slapped in the face, and despite putting in all that work and energy, they are not getting what they should at the end.

All over the world, we see models showing why local government works. We see them not just in Germany, which the right hon. Member for Coventry North East mentioned, but in France, in places such as Montpellier and Lyons. Thirty years ago those were depressing places, but under strong local leadership they are now splendid places. That is not because they have more money, but because the people controlling the money are located in Montpellier and Lyons, not Paris, and understand local needs and local imaginations.

We can also see these things in Scotland. Alex Salmond’s biggest mistake is to believe that his performance is an argument for independence; it is not—it is an argument in favour of decentralisation. Everything that has gone well in Scotland over the past decade has happened because of the tapping of local energies within a national context, which is the precise balance we want. We must use the strengths of a vast country and a vast economy. This country is no Denmark or Norway—it is Great Britain, and our economy is 12 times the size of those countries’. We have sterling, we have our Foreign Office and we have our Army, and within that national context, local things can be done well. That is what the Scottish National party—at its best, when it understands these things—shows locally, not through a push for independence but through a push for autonomy.

Why do we want local mayors? They will harness and tap local energy and the educated, healthy, dynamic population we have created over decades. They will be able to use local knowledge and to understand local issues. In London, I have a big problem explaining exactly what is happening with broadband in Mallerstang, in Cumbria, because it involves complicated local questions. If I take the issue to a Minister, the civil servant will whack it back and say, “No, no, it’s much more complicated than that. There are big issues about state aid and procurement.” It is difficult to get such things across. We therefore need somebody who uses local knowledge.

Finally, we need somebody who uses local trust. Elected local mayors are a way of rebuilding not just local democracy but national democracy. If we can tap the new British genius for the local, create a connection between citizens and elected local mayors and restore faith in politics at the most local level—the politics of the city-state, where every citizen confronts their representative on the street, lives through the practical problems and decisions of politics and understands the messy compromises, the courage and the idealism of politics in their market square—we have a hope of restoring faith in not only the local, but the national.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Stevenson (Carlisle) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers) on securing this debate, which is incredibly timely given that we have elections in eight days. He mentioned that I initiated a debate on this very subject about 18 months ago, when probably one or two fewer hon. Members attended than are here today. Interestingly, Sir Peter Soulsby was there and went on to become an elected mayor. It will be interesting to see whether any hon. Member here today subsequently becomes an elected mayor.

I said during that debate 18 months ago that the idea of elected mayors was flying below the radar, and that is probably still the case to a certain extent, but I believe that they have the potential profoundly to transform our democracy. Perhaps things are beginning to change in the sense that referendums will be held in 10 of our great cities next week. In addition, three mayoral elections will take place at the same time: in London, which we all know about, Liverpool and Leicester.

The UK started its journey back in 2000, when the Labour Government introduced the concept of elected mayors; but unfortunately, for whatever reason, it never took off. I am delighted that the present Government have taken up the baton. There is still cross-party support—two great advocates are Lord Heseltine and Lord Adonis— and it is great to see other parliamentarians taking an interest. There have been 38 referendums, and only 14 have said yes, which is shame, but I think that is partly because local politicians have been resistant to the idea and national politicians have not been willing to drive it forward and promote it. Again, I think that is changing. Some councils are using their two-thirds majority to introduce elected mayors, as Liverpool and Leicester have done; some have gone for majority decisions to call referendums; and there has been the odd petition; but the 5% threshold is putting many people off, and I will raise that with the Minister in due course.

I am conscious that I do not have much time, so I shall concentrate on two aspects. First, I believe that elected mayors can be a huge benefit to local government. In this country, we often underestimate the importance and significance of local government. Local councils already have powers covering planning, procurement, economic development in their own areas and housing issues, but our politics are dominated completely by the centre, and that is fundamentally wrong. We underestimate what powers they already have and could use, but often do not use effectively. Elected mayors will be personalities who are transparent, known and visible to their local community, and they may be willing to use existing powers more effectively.

I want to encourage the Government to continue what I think they are starting to do: to continue the decentralisation process and to give greater powers to local government, whether using the elected-mayor model or the present model. Our country is far too centralised, and we need to spread power out. We have done that successfully in Scotland and Wales, and there is no reason why we cannot do so in the rest of the country.

If mayors are elected for a four-year term and have a mandate from the local people, they have the opportunity to implement their manifesto. At present, Carlisle city councillors are elected in thirds. That creates chaos, because they are never quite sure whether they will be in control. It is fair enough if the council has a majority that will carry it through two elections, but otherwise councillors are always thinking about the next election and not planning for the future.

Four-year terms, with good powers for elected mayors, will provide the opportunity to transform their localities. Not all elected mayors will succeed. There will be failures and eccentrics, but that is democracy, and we are part of a democracy. In four years, local people will have the opportunity to remove that person and to bring in someone else. People in the local area will decide who provides the leadership.

National politics will be transformed, and that is a real positive. At present, people come to Westminster, climb the greasy pole, and fall off, which is the end of their career. Now, we have the opportunity for national politicians, who may have made their name nationally, going out and doing something in their localities. Their national career may be over, but their local career might just be starting. They can be figureheads for the places that they came from, which is tremendous, because they would bring experience and contacts to their local areas.

The reverse is also true. I am amazed at how few nationally successful politicians have been council leaders. Elected mayors who are major politicians in their locality may ultimately become MPs. If they subsequently become Ministers, they would bring tremendous executive experience of running an authority, perhaps of only 250,000 people with a budget of £100 million, but they would have direct executive experience, which many hon. Members do not have. When Ministers are first appointed, they sometimes flounder because they do not have that experience.

I want to allow the maximum amount of time for the Opposition spokesman and the Minister, but I want to ask the Minister whether he will continue the commitment to elected mayors even if the referendum outcomes are not as we hope. Clearly, I should like all 10 cities to embrace the idea, but if only three or four do and others do not, is he committed to continuing the process? Will the Minister encourage further referendums for smaller cities, as has been done for the big 10? I would love Carlisle to have the opportunity to decide in a referendum whether to have an elected mayor.

[Rory Stewart]

Is my hon. Friend suggesting that we could have referendums for mayors in even smaller places, such as Penrith?

[John Stevenson]

I accept my hon. Friend’s point, and I do not see why not. If Cumbria, for example, had an elected mayor, smaller areas within Cumbria could easily have the same mechanisms and form of government.

At present, the 5% threshold has been a barrier to referendums and to people deciding to raise a petition in their areas and pursuing the idea of a referendum. I hope that that threshold can be revisited and, if possible, reduced to a level where it would be far easier for someone who believes in the idea locally to go out and obtain the requisite number of signatures. I look forward to the Minister’s response.