Clause 32 - Ancillary powers
Local Government Bill
8:55 am
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative)
Good morning, Mr. Conway. I apologise for being a minute or two late. Perhaps we should ask the House of Commons cleaners not to occupy the lifts at 6 minutes to 9 in the morning. I may not have the running power of Seb Coe, but I assure the Committee that it took me approximately a minute and a half to get here from my office on the fourth floor of Portcullis House.
The hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr. Davey) makes a good point with amendment No. 85. The ancillary power contained in subsection (2) could be particularly onerous. The Minister should explain it in context. Although the Government are always giving local authorities new duties, they do not often finance them—and even when they do finance them, they do not finance them in full. Added to the duties that the Government, through the Secretary of State, impose on local authorities, are the new duties that will be imposed by whatever type of regional bodies—God forbid—that emerge. There are huge powers under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill for the regional planning body to require local authorities to carry out a vast range of duties, for most of which they will not be reimbursed. This is a sensible amendment, as the clause as drafted could be very onerous. It will also be difficult for the Audit Commission or the Public Accounts Committee to scrutinise properly what is being requested of each local authority. The Minister will be more familiar than I with the fact that it is not just financial transactions that the Audit Commission, the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office scrutinise; they also scrutinise best value for money. They have a role in scrutinising whether Government instructions to local authorities are reasonable. If the Minister is reasonable, he will accept the amendment from the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton.