Abolition of GLC and Metropolitan County Councils

Part of Orders of the Day — Local Government Bill (Clause 1) – in the House of Commons at 6:15 pm on 13 December 1984.

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Photo of Mr Kenneth Hind Mr Kenneth Hind , West Lancashire 6:15, 13 December 1984

The amendment will raise many eyebrows. The hon. Member for Southwark and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes) said that the Liberal party was not keen, and never had been keen, on the metropolitan counties. Thus, we must ask ourselves why, in those circumstances, this amendment has been introduced.

Let us have recourse to the manifesto that was put forward in 1983 by the alliance party. The manifesto spoke ahout local government and said that the party planned to revitalise local government, restoring its independence and its accountability to the local electorate by … simplifying the structure of local government to make it more effective by abolishing one of the existing tiers of Government. This will be done by stages against the background of our proposals for the development of regional government. It would inevitably involve the eventual abolition of the MCCs and the GLC (not ILEA) and would also allow for the restoration of powers to some of the former county boroughs. That is just what the Bill does. The alliance seems to have done a complete about face. Consequently, we wonder whether it might not have pushed the amendment if it did not think that there were votes to be had in clinging on to some of those dinosaurs of local government.

The Liberals arid the SDP cannot agree between themselves. In The Social Democrat of 28 January 1983 the hon. Member for Woolwich (Mr. Cartwright) said: The present two-tier system of local government is costly, wasteful and bureaucratic. Social Democrats should he campaigning for a simplification of local government bringing the control of key services closer to the people. That means moving towards a single tier structure which everyone can understand. Then comes the most important statement: The first step should be the scrapping of the GLC and the metropolitan counties. I shall be interested to see which Lobby the hon. Member for Woolwich goes into tonight.

During the general election the hon. Member for Woolwich said: As regional government grows, one of the existing tiers of local government will be abolished; the GLC and the metropolitan counties will disappear but local communities will have statutory parish or neighbourhood councils. Those words appeared in the Estates Gazette of 21 May. It was the same theme right the way through, and it was not until after the election that the alliance turned towards saying that we should hang on to those authorities. It is arrant hypocrisy to turn round when it is politically expedient to bring forward such an amendment and say that perhaps we should all change our minds and go into the Lobby to try to keep the metropolitan county councils.

Today, the Labour party advocates support of the metropolitan county councils. It at least has the consistency on this matter to abstain. I unerstand that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker) is a member of the Labour party's Front Bench team. After the election, and after this Government had clearly stated their intention to abolish the metropolitan county councils, he said: I do not intend to lift one legislative finger to stop the return of single-tier government to Birmingham. That was the view of all the City councillors and it was clearly the view of all West Midland MPs before the election. Those words come from the Sutton Coldfield News of 23 September 1983.

When concluding the recent Second Reading debate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State asked the hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham), the Labour party's spokesman, at least three times to say whether a Labour Government would reintroduce the metropolitan counties. The answer must be no, because the hon. Gentleman refused to answer the question. Perhaps I can refer Labour Members to their manifesto of 1983, which stated: We aim to end if we can the confusing division of services between two tiers of authority. Unitary district authorities in England and Wales could be responsible for all the functions in this area that they could sensibly undertake. The Labour party's policy was clearly to have one unitary system of local government and not to preserve the two-tier system. Perhaps the Labour party falls into the same category as the hon. Member for Southwark and Bermondsey—if there were no votes in it, they would not oppose the Bill.

6.30 pm

In 1972, when the present system was set up, it was noticeable that the Labour party fought against the proposals. The Bill provides for a return of functions to authorities which are sufficiently large to deal with the problems of all local government matters, including strategic planning. Those who have lived in large county boroughs know that they can deal with all the major functions of local government, and should be allowed to do so. They are closer to the electorate. There are many more district councillors than county councillors. To much of the public, councils with headquarters 15 or 20 miles away are irrelevant.

I was born and bred a Lancastrian. In 1972 someone told me, "I am sorry, you are not a Lancastrian any more; you belong to the county of Greater Manchester." I am sure that that gladdened the hearts of citizens of Bury, Salford, Bolton and other such areas. Likewise, the Wirral, Birkenhead and Southport became part of Merseyside. Most of the metropolitan counties geographically identify with no one. The general public have no empathy with them. They are distant and irrelevant.

Little of the government of London is carried out by the GLC. Assuming that most of the transport functions—especially buses—are taken away from the metropolitan counties, what will be left for them? They do not have the major functions of education, social services and transport — other than a responsibility for major roads and strategic planning. The district boroughs that carry out planning functions can easily extend them to strategic planning. They are quite capable of handling structure plans, because that is what they do on a day-to-day basis. They can carry on precisely where the metropolitan counties leave off.

My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield (Mr. King) referred to the boards. A district council has eight or 10 committees, so, inevitably, a councillor will serve on only two or three of them. If he receives a complaint about waste disposal, but he serves on the planning committee, he will approach a colleague on the relevant committee. Now, district councils will take up such matters with their colleagues who sit on the boards. Democracy will work in that way. The district councillors will be closer to the public. They will be more numerous, more approachable and will identify with the interests of their constituents far better than the metropolitan county councillor, who might represent 12,000 or 15,000 people spread over an often indefinable area.

I am astounded by the hypocrisy that I have heard in the debate. The Opposition are facing in every direction at the same time, in the hope that they will see someone with a different point of view with whom they can identify. The Government consulted the electorate in June 1983. Our proposals were clearly set out in the manifesto. We have been consistent in our approach — we have not faced in different directions. We are doing what we were elected to do. We are not saying one thing and doing another. Perhaps the Opposition will learn from our consistency. Perhaps that is why we are sitting here and they are sitting on the Opposition Benches.