Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Rory Stewart and John Stevenson

Thursday 7th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[John Stevenson (Carlisle) (Con)]

T2. Following the floods in Carlisle, I am concerned that a group of leaseholders will not be able to get insurance under Flood Re. They consist of 68 long leaseholders with a management company as the freeholder with responsibility for insurance. That management company has not been able to obtain insurance so far. Will the Minister look into the issue and consider amending the legislation if necessary?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Rory Stewart)]

In addition to welcoming the shadow Secretary of State to her position, may I also welcome my friend the hon. Member for Newport West (Paul Flynn) to his position?

As for the flooding in Carlisle, my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (John Stevenson) is a great champion of his constituency. If there is an individual leasehold property, it would be covered with affordable insurance under Flood Re. Unfortunately, when there is a larger number of properties, such as the more than 60 properties that the landlord has in this case, it would be classified as commercial insurance and would require a bespoke, tailored commercial insurance product from the insurance industry. I am happy to look at the individual case, and the British Insurance Brokers Association is also coming up with tailored products exactly to address such commercial risks.

Mayoral Referendums

Debate between Rory Stewart and John Stevenson

Wednesday 25th April 2012 Westminster Hall

[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.

Localism Bill

Debate between Rory Stewart and John Stevenson

Monday 17th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[John Stevenson (Carlisle) (Con)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this extremely important debate. The Bill is undoubtedly one of the coalition Government’s flagship policies.

In many respects, the Bill is long overdue and a badly needed piece of legislation. I think that all Government Members accept that the balance of power between local and central Government has been out of kilter for many years and clearly needs to be redressed. Over the years, central Government have become rather suspicious of local government, seeing it as incompetent and rather ineffective—many in the Chamber who have been involved in local government will recognise that situation. Indeed, over the past 30 years, Whitehall involvement in local government has amounted almost to the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it wrongly and applying unsuitable remedies. I hope that the Bill will start to change that.

Local government was not necessarily loved in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but it did function properly. Over the past 13 years, however, it has been taken to a completely different level: the town hall has effectively become a department of Whitehall and part of the apparatus of the state. We have had targets, ring-fencing, regulation and a “Whitehall knows best” attitude: “You’ll only do it one way, and that is our way”. As a consequence, we now have weak local government; it is seen as irrelevant by many people. We have non-participation in elections, a lack of involvement, poor decision making and, in many respects, fear of actually making a decision. Redressing that imbalance is hugely important.

Reform, however, is about not just about creating new powers or shifting old ones, but repeal, which is why I welcome the abolition of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, the other regional development agencies and regional government, and the scrapping of regional strategies, the bin tax and so on. That is all very welcome. I spoke at a conference this weekend with about 100 parish councillors, whose responses to the introduction of the Bill were interesting to hear. They were enthusiastic, receptive and encouraged by the proposals, which demonstrated that people want to be involved and to take responsibility.

[Rory Stewart]

As a fellow Cumbrian Member of Parliament, will my hon. Friend please join us in supporting the community buy-out of the Penrith cinema, which is a great example of localism?

[John Stevenson]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; it is a demonstration of localism. Indeed, I was lobbied about that very topic at the weekend. I will certainly give it my support.

I am sure that hon. Members will refer this evening to many different aspects of the Bill, but I will touch on just one or two. First, we have governance and the general power of competence, which has already been alluded to, and which is an opportunity for authorities to be radical and innovative. I believe also that the referendums on council tax will have a restraining influence on the excesses of some councils, although they will not prevent councils with a popular mandate from taking on a project and proceeding, even if they need a referendum to support it. Also important in my view is the potential introduction of 12 new elected mayors. I have been a long-time supporter of elected mayors, believing that they bring to local government visible leadership, accountability and transparency—people know who is in charge and, in many respects, it is the modern way of doing things.

I fully support the Bill. However, I will be interested to see what the Government do when it settles. Will they introduce and transfer more power to local authorities? I hope so. I am also encouraged that the Government are looking at how we fund local government, because that is critical to the future independence of local government. I would encourage, where possible, the transfer back to local authorities of responsibility for business rates. One good reason for that is that if businesses are paying rates to a local authority, they will have a stake in that local community and the decisions made by that local authority, and they will engage more. Currently, many businesses take an ambivalent view of what goes on in local government, which is not good for communities.

My final point is probably almost as important as the Bill itself: there has to be a culture change. There has to be a culture change in central Government whereby they accept that different parts of the country will make different decisions about different topics. They have to accept that even though they might not like it. However, there also has to be a culture change in local government: it has to take on responsibility to embrace these powers and build its own communities in the way that it wants. However, I fully support the Bill. It is a great work in progress, and I look forward to supporting it through its later stages.