Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Young of Cookham on 4 July (HL Deb, col 1524), what assessment they have made of (1) the comparative costs of directly elected mayoral systems and traditional systems of local government administration, and (2) whether directly elected mayoral systems represent value for money.

The Government’s comparative assessment of the models of local governance is that only the mayoral model provides that single point of accountability necessary if significant powers and budgets are to be devolved to an area, and it is for local areas to decide whether such an arrangement would be of benefit and value to their local communities.