Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the traditional boundary of the County Palatine of Lancaster is extant; and what effect the Local Government Acts (a) 1888, (b) 1929 and (c) 1972 have on that County Palatine in relation to (i) Audenshaw, (ii) Denton, (ii) Reddish, (iv) Heaton Chapel and (v) Heaton Norris.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The County Palatine of Lancaster is often seen as the historic county of Lancashire. The historic counties are an important element of our traditions which support the identity and cultures of many of our local communities. The government has been active in promoting the historic counties of our nation as a key element of our heritage and will continue to do so.
No legislation has specifically abolished historic counties, but they do not exist for the purposes of the administration of local government or ceremonial purposes, though historic, administrative and ceremonial boundaries may in some cases be coterminous. All of the areas mentioned in the question are historically within the County Palatine of Lancaster, and are now in the ceremonial county of Greater Manchester and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Stockport and Tameside, and within the area of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, for the delivery of their modern local services.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with local authorities on flying and promoting county flags on Historic County Flags day on 23 July 2020.
Answered by Simon Clarke
I am a huge supporter of our historic counties which are an integral part of local identity and belonging. Over the last year or more, we have been active in promoting the role of our historic counties in celebrating the history and traditions of our nation. We will use the opportunity presented by Historic County Flags Day on 23 July to raise their profile once more, but given the wider pressures resulting from the COVID-19 emergency, we envisage any celebrations this year at national and local level will be done virtually or via social media.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he is taking steps to ensure that historic county flags are flown in Parliament square on Historic County Flags day 23 July 2020.
Answered by Simon Clarke
I am a huge supporter of our historic counties which are an integral part of local identity and belonging. Over the last year or more, we have been active in promoting the role of our historic counties in celebrating the history and traditions of our nation. We will use the opportunity presented by Historic County Flags Day on 23 July to raise their profile once more, but given the wider pressures resulting from the COVID-19 emergency, we envisage any celebrations this year at national and local level will be done virtually or via social media.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer or 20 May 2019 to Question 254756 on Historic County Flags Day, whether borough council leaders are also encouraged to engage in local activities to celebrate their historic counties.
Answered by Jake Berry
I would like all councils to celebrate their historic counties, and local events to mark Historic County Flags Day on 23 July would be an excellent way to do that. We will shortly be publishing guidance, a copy of which I sent earlier this year to the leaders of county councils and unitary counties, to help local authorities celebrate their counties’ proud histories and identities, including by celebrating Historic County Flags Day and the flying of Historic County Flags. I am also considering other ways in which we can raise the profile of Historic County Flags Day.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with local authorities on flying and promoting county flags on Historic County Flags Day on 23 July.
Answered by Jake Berry
I regularly have discussions with local authorities covering a wide range of issues which can include the celebration of historic counties. To help county council leaders develop local activities to celebrate their historic counties, I issued on 10 April guidance which included a section referring to the County Flags Day on 23 July and provided advice about the flying of Historic County Flags.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what representations he has received from the British Counties Campaign; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jake Berry
During the course of this Parliamentary session we have received four representations about the British Counties Campaign’s proposal for legislation to promote and give special status to the historic counties.
Whilst traditional counties are rightly no longer part of today’s administrative arrangements, which need to reflect where people live and work today, they are an important element of our heritage which supports the identity and cultures of so many of our local communities.
That is why I recently asked my officials to draft new guidance for English local authorities on promoting their traditional county links.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has displayed county flags to commemorate annual county days at its Marsham Street building in 2018.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Commemorating county days forms an important part of our nation’s rich and historic heritage and it is only right that county days should be celebrated by communities across our great nation.
The Department does not routinely display county flags and has not displayed any this year. I am, however, happy to consider individual requests from Hon Members to display county flags for their respective counties, on county days.
The hon Member will be pleased to know my Department amended planning regulations to allow local and county flags to be flown by individuals without planning permission, and published a plain English guide to flying flags.
A copy of the guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flying-flags-a-plain-english-guide.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will undertake a feasibility study of reverting the boundaries of Yorkshire to those prior to the splitting of the region after the Local Government Act 1972.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Whilst the Government recognises the part historic counties can play in our traditions and local heritage across the country, we have no plans to undertake top down studies or reviews of local boundaries. We are ready to have conversations with any area about their proposals for the future governance of that area and the powers and budgets they would like to see devolved to it.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps he has taken to rebalance the economy and create a Northern Powerhouse.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The government has undertaken a range of efforts to pursue its Northern Powerhouse agenda and to rebalance the economy of the country.
Last November, the Chancellor signed an historic devolution agreement with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and included a Cities Devolution Bill in the Queen’s Speech in May which will allow tailoring of the deal to other cities of the North subject to governance arrangements. On 14th May, the Chancellor announced that he will work with the great towns and counties of the North to agree County Deals, so all places have a chance to benefit.
Additionally, the government has announced plans for a range of transport investments in the region. These include the creation of Transport of the North, who will devise a Northern Transport Strategy, and plans to develop HS3. Small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures will also benefit through government support across a range of areas, including investments made in tech incubators, financial and commercial advice from the British Business Bank, through the government’s Enterprise Zone programme and through supporting sector specific strengths in the region such as through investments in Health science.
The North is currently growing faster per person than London, but we will go further still in rebalancing the economy
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support and champion England’s traditional counties.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
England’s traditional counties date back over a thousand years of English history, but many of the counties have been sidelined by Whitehall in recent decades, whether by the bland municipal restructuring of Edward Heath’s Government in 1972, or by the imposition of artificial regional structures by the last Labour Government based on the EU’s Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (the appropriately-named “NUTS” Regulations).
Yet the tapestry of England’s counties binds our nation together, and is interwoven with our cultural fabric – from our cricket to our ales. So this Government has taken a series of steps to champion our traditional counties:
• We have amended planning regulations to allow local and county flags to be flown without planning permission, and published a plain English guide to flying flags. Previously, flying a county flag on an existing flag pole required a princely sum of £335 to be paid to the council.
• We have supported the Flag Institute in publishing a new guide for would-be vexillologists to encourage a new wave of county and other local flags to be designed and flown. http://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/british-flags/creating-local-and-community-flags/
• My Department has flown a range of county flags in Whitehall to mark different county days, including Cumberland, Huntingdonshire, Westmorland and Middlesex. We have also flown flags to celebrate other historic localities such as those of the Ridings of Yorkshire and of Wessex – the kingdom which gave birth to the united English nation.
• We are changing highways regulations to allow traditional county names to appear on boundary road signs. The previous rules prevented unitary councils like Blackpool from having a road sign saying ‘Lancashire’, or Poole saying ‘Dorset’ – since they were not considered to be part of the ‘administrative county’.
• We have a new online interactive map of England’s different county boundaries. http://communities.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Compare/storytelling_compare/index.html?appid=7b0e661ef66b4a7aacb5a9acf55108ac
• Ordnance Survey, the Government’s National Mapping Agency, now provides a dataset of current, ceremonial counties (counties retained for the purposes of representing Her Majesty by Lord Lieutenants and High Sheriffs). http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/help-and-support/products/boundary-line.html
• I can also announce to the House today that from May a dataset of the traditional, historic counties based on 19th Century boundaries will be available on the OS OpenData portal. These datasets are compatible with the OS Boundary-Line product which is available to all free of charge. Ordnance Survey is also going to provide a viewing map window on their website showing both the historic and ceremonial County boundaries on top of a base map.
• Later in the year, Ordnance Survey is hoping to publish a paper map of the Historic Counties of England, Scotland and Wales (as defined in the Local Government Act 1888 for England and Wales and the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 for Scotland), which will be available to the general public to purchase and proudly display.
We are stronger as a nation when we cherish and champion our local and traditional ties. This Government is proud to wave the flag of St George and Union flag alongside our county flags. Whatever one’s class, colour or creed, we should have pride in our English identity within the United Kingdom’s Union that binds us all together.