Draft Greater Manchester Combined Authority (Functions and amendment) Order 2016

Yvonne Fovargue Excerpts

Tuesday 13th December 2016 General Committees

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

I have a few brief comments about the spatial framework, which may be too much detail for the Minister, although not from a Greater Manchester point of view. I am in favour of devolving power to the people, but the measure says that the decision must be unanimous among all 10 leaders of the Greater Manchester authority. There seems to be some doubt about whether the spatial framework needs to be discussed at all by the relevant councils in the area, so where there are huge numbers of objections to certain parts of the spatial framework, how will local councillors representing their constituents be able to comment? Do they even have a voice, or will it be solely the leaders of the combined authority, who might not even have to go to cabinet on the issue?

Another problem with the spatial framework is that although Greater Manchester is one place with 10 constituent authorities, we in the outer boroughs are also affected by what our neighbours in other regions do: in my case, for example, St Helens. Will the duty to consult in the spatial framework be rigorously examined? I fear that the localisation of business rates, which leaves some councils net losers, will lead to a race to the bottom, with all the areas next to the motorways covered in large warehouses.