Clause 100
Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]
9:30 am
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State (Yorkshire and the Humber), Department for Communities and Local Government; Doncaster Central, Labour)
I hope that I can give some reassurance on congestion charging. The powers and functions of integrated transport authorities are set out in the Local Transport Act 2008. The Bill will not alter the functions available to ITAs but merely allow them to be brought together with local authority economic development functions in a single combined authority. The Bill will not create any new transport functions for sub-regional bodies when such functions could not already be given to ITAs.
On the hon. Gentleman’s point, combined authorities can act in the same way as EPBs and can take on the same functions. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to have two bodies for the same area. Subsection (5) states:
“Condition D is that no part of the area forms part of...the area of another combined authority”.
The provision is intended to ensure that the boundaries are fairly clear and that there are not all kinds of crossovers. I hope that that is reassuring.