Clause 16 - Application of 1992 Act
Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill
11:30 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 57, in
clause 16, page 9, line 38, leave out 'sections 22 and' and insert 'section'.
This explanation will become quite complicated—I hope that all my cross-referencing has gone according to plan. Section 22 of the 1992 Act refers to the power to create residuary bodies. The effect of amendment No. 57 is therefore to remove the ability to create residuary bodies that will assume the residual liabilities—and assets, I suppose—of local authorities that are to be abolished.
It is important that the Bill does not create a mechanism for increased public expenditure or duplication of resources and effort. We are talking about a reorganisation of local government in a region and the transfer of powers from two-tier authorities to unitary authorities; in other words, powers will either move up from shire districts or down from large county authorities that are to be restructured as more than one unitary authority. I can see no reason why all the assets and liabilities of existing authorities should not be vested in one or other of the newly created authorities. I suspect that we are talking about a one-off manipulation of the situation that may allow, for example, the Secretary of State to give a huge, concealed benefit to a region that is moving towards having an elected regional assembly and unitary authorities.
If—to select a region at random—the north-east were to choose in a referendum to pursue elected regional assemblies and the Minister were minded to establish residuary bodies for the liabilities of some of those authorities, might that not be a way of offering an inducement to electors in those regions? They would see a significant improvement in the financial situation of their local authorities as a result of the ability to transfer liabilities out to residuary bodies. Who would pick up the ultimate liability of those bodies? Would central Government pay—the taxpayer from other parts of the country? I am concerned about the way in which this provision might be used, but I also think that, even if it is not misused, it is simply inappropriate not to transfer the liabilities and assets of existing authorities to their successor authorities.