Clause 5
Sustainable Communities Bill
10:00 am
Nick Hurd (Ruislip - Northwood, Conservative)
We now come to the meat of the Bill. This is the first time that we have had a chance publicly to debate what will become the old clause 5, with which we are taking new clause 3. I believe it to be meat of the Bill, because the whole driving force and premise behind it is that local people know best when it comes to decisions on the development and sustainability of communities; we want to give them more influence over those key decisions. The point was well made on Second Reading by my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset that, in this day and age, power is power over money. The Minister has reiterated that point on many occasions, so I think that he accepts it.
The proposition of old clause 5 is straightforward. It has a clear link with the original clause 4, which has been accepted in principle by the Committee and will trigger something quite radical in terms of our ability to account for public expenditure in this country. The proposition of that clause, too, is straightforward. It sets us on a journey towards a destination whereby every one of our constituents will be able to trace almost every pound of public expenditure in the local authority area in which they live. It will throw a spotlight into the dark corners of public expenditure in a way that will have a considerable impact across the country and across communities, as people finally get to see exactly what the Government are spending on their behalf.
However, information by itself is not enough. If we are to let the genie out of the bottle, we need to give people some opportunity to influence how that money is spent. We need to give them power, and some sense that they have influence and can change things. That is the core of the proposition behind clause 5.
The original proposition was that the Government would publish the information and that local authorities would have the right to go back to the Secretary of State with alternative recommendations for how the money should be spent. It is clear from the drafting of old clause 5 that the Bill’s sponsors had intended to place some presumption on the Secretary of State that he or she would accept the local recommendations unless there were good reasons not to.
It was clear from the start of negotiations with the Government that there were reservations about that. There were predictable concerns about boxing in Secretaries of State, but also legitimate ones thatthe original drafting had underestimated some key elements that might call into question the workability of the original proposals, particularly in relation to statutory requirements on agencies. It was felt that it was not enough simply to reallocate money, but that one had to consider the statutory responsibilities of the agencies required.
We took those concerns on board, and they are reflected in new clause 3. That clearly sets out the path without undermining the principles of the old clause 5. Subsection (1)(b) of the new clause makes it clear, to some extent, that recommendations from councils to the Secretary of State must take into account and take a view on
“any consequential delegation of functions to the council.”
Subsection (2) makes it clear that, when making recommendations, councils must demonstrate that they have engaged with the local community and that there is, in effect, a popular mandate for those recommendations. It refers specifically to the mechanism of citizens panels, which we explored when debating the amendments to clause 3.
I say to the Minister that I believe that we have been constructive in responding to the concern about boxing in Secretaries of State. The new clause would soften the requirements on them, but hold firm on the requirement that any decisions that they take should be utterly transparent. The amendments to the new clause must be seen in the context of the concern that this process could leave the Secretary of State vulnerable to mischief-making from councils. We live in a cynical world—a point strongly made in our informal discussions—and there is concern that the Secretary of State could be left exposed to politically motivated campaigns and held directly responsible for unpopular local decisions.
The amendments would address that concernby making it clear that councils must put their recommendations in some sort of framework. Recommendations must be seen to be consistent with a sustainable community strategy. They must not come from a completely random perspective, but be evidence based—I think that that was the expression used by the Minister.
We have taken an extremely constructive approach in tabling the new clause and the subsequent amendments to respond to the concerns that have been articulated. Our problem is that we are operating in a vacuum because the Government have failed to table a single word of amendment to clause 5, which is the meat of the Bill. That concerns us because this clause is a test of the Government’s commitment to the Bill and to devolving genuine influence and power to communities.
From our discussions with the Government, we have gleaned that they are comfortable with devolving more power to local authorities and more money to local decision making. Their desired framework is the local area agreement and—the Minister will correct me if I am wrong—they see the Bill as going with that grain.
I understand that the Government’s desired direction of travel is to move towards the concept of super-LAAs. We are urged to buy into the vision of local partners sitting around a table laden with a large pot of money, which results, in theory, from clause 4. Under the terms of local area agreements and the strategic partnership framework, they will be encouraged to agree on a maximum of 35 locally set targets, framed beneath the umbrella of a sustainable community strategy. In theory, they could agree to bend the money towards the achievement of their locally set targets.In the Government’s view, the duty to co-operate effectively bestows on local authorities the position of first among equals. That is a logical and rational approach, but it is my belief, shared by the Bill’s sponsors, that it is not enough in this context. We are in danger of legislating for business as usual.
As I understand it, the duty to co-operate is restricted to co-operation on agreeing targets and does not extend to what we hope are quite spirited arguments about how money is allocated—that is a big difference. There can be a different vision of how such co-operation works. In an earlier sitting we had an eloquent debate comparing how sustainable community strategies are formulated with how village plans are formulated. There is a different dynamic, culture and sense of ownership in those two processes. If I spent next Saturday morning standing on Ruislip high street and asked a hundred of my constituents what they thought of the local area agreement or the Hillingdon community strategy I would get a lot of puzzled looks—even more than normal.
I am sure that the Government have taken an intellectually honest approach and a new direction of travel, engaged in the spirit of devolution, but my honest assessment is that that spirit does not gripthe public in the way that they had hoped. I believethat part of the Government’s conversion, or their engagement with the Bill, is an opportunity, and that some elements of the Bill can be a catalyst for engaging the public more through the opportunity to be involved in local decision making.
The Government’s vision is of the continuation of business as usual, with discussions behind closed doors between a set of people for whom this is not their day job—their day job is compliance with national targets and the management of their fixed and, in manycases, quite vulnerable budgets. I may be generalising excessively, but there does not seem to be the culture out there genuinely to take the opportunity provided by the Bill.
We have to change something in the mix, and the mechanism that we have developed in clause 5 as drafted, and in new clause 3 and amendments (a) to (d), delivers that change. It gives local authorities the power to break the impasse by giving them the right to say, “We can’t agree, so we’re going to take a recommendation to the Secretary of State.” It effectively makes them leaders around the table, which is an important shift.
I believe that the Minister accepts that there is some logic to that argument, and he certainly accepts the basic position that we need a mechanism to break an impasse. We are not just talking about green targets; we are trying to create a situation in which people have a genuine debate about how money is spent and have to account for what they are doing and win arguments.
We want to encourage the kind of thinking outside the box that we explored informally in our discussions. I think the Minister’s favourite example is the Blackburn slipper, which is a useful one to place on the record. In that centre of innovation, Blackburn, some clever person decided that pensioners should be given free slippers. I am not sure what the original motivation was—it was clearly extremely popular with pensioners—but the consequence, intended or unintended, was that fewer pensioners fell over in their homes or down their stairs, and admissions to accident and emergency fell. The net savings to the public purse were considerable as a result of that one simple decision, but it would not have happened unless someone was prepared to think innovatively.
Most of the partners around the table are thinking in their boxes or silos, and are directed towards their targets. We hope to create a culture in which the partners co-operate in a much more innovative wayand there are incentives in the system for people to co-operate. I am concerned that the Government’s framework, although we have never seen it written down, will not trigger or create the conditions for such creative thinking.
We need a mechanism to break the impasse and to make it clear that the real leaders of discussion should be local authorities with local mandates. That is our vision, and the principles that I have outlined are the basis for old clause 5 and amended new clause 3.