Clause 86
Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]
9:00 am
Paul Goodman (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Wycombe, Conservative)
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr. Amess. It has been useful to have a brief Second Reading-type excursion from my right hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon this morning. In a less elevated vein, before we rose on Tuesday evening, I attempted to take the same kind of tour in relation to the confusion of the architecture that we now see gradually revealed in the Bill. I shall not attempt to repeat the Second Reading observations on the clause, but I want to send a signal to the Minister about most of the remainder of the clauses in this part of the Bill. As I observed on Tuesday, they give considerable powers to the Secretary of State.
For example, under the clause, the Secretary of State will be able to decide membership, voting powers, executive arrangements and so forth. I am fascinated by paragraph (f) of subsection (4), which refers to the
“disapplication of section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (c. 42) (duty to allocate seats to political groups)”.
That suggests either that the paragraph would disapply a duty to ensure political balance, or vice versa. I would be grateful if the Minister enlightened us on that point.
In summary, on most of the clauses—I shall have something more to say about one particular clause—we wish the Minister to persuade the Committee that the Secretary of State’s powers will be exercised responsibly and not in an onerous way. Who knows? The economic prosperity boards might in due course have the opportunity to take over more powers and become bottom-up bodies with real power and authority, rather than pieces of a confusing jigsaw, under what we hope is the forthcoming Conservative Government.