Clause 28
Greater London Authority Bill
4:00 pm
Stephen Pound (PPS (Rt Hon Hazel Blears, Minister without Portfolio), Cabinet Office; Ealing North, Labour)
Indeed, my maiden speech. The first and last decent speech I ever made on the Floor of the House, many would say. I spoke on the Greater London Authority Bill and for my sins I was then put on the Committee of it. I made precisely that point, referring to the glittering kaleidoscope of agencies delivering services across London, which I said
“does not delight the eye, but benumbs the brain”.—[Official Report, 10 November 1997; Vol. 300, c. 609.]
I seem to remember waxing lyrical about the traffic signals control unit, which means something to those of us who were involved in local government in the ’70s and ’80s, but happily not nowadays.
Like most people, I have considered the evolution of the London mayoralty. We are used to Mayors in London—we have even had a couple of Lord Mayors—but we are still not used to the idea of a strategic Mayor combined with an executive assembly. We have watched the mayoralty evolve. We are here today because of the evolution of the role of Mayor and the need, in many matters, to change it where circumstances have changed. Clause 28(3) exempts the Mayor from requirements established in section 41(9) of the 1999 Act, in which targets were set within the London housing strategy—the suggestion is that they are not less demanding than targets and objectives set nationally. That change has come about because of a recognition of the sub-regional housing supply situation, and the need to ensure some level of national conformity and—to risk re-introducing the debate on floors and ceilings—to set a floor.