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10.2 pm
Mr. Mike Gapes (Ilford, South): It is interesting to follow the hon. Member for Orpington (Mr. Horam). I shall not dwell on the past, but it is interesting to note that the previous Government, having abolished the Greater London council, had a long time in which to come up with an alternative, perhaps of the sort that the hon. Gentleman now advocates, but that no such proposal was seen until 1997, when the Labour Government were elected with their pledge to bring back a strategic authority for London.
I was born in London, in the borough of Redbridge--an area slightly more inner than the area represented by my hon. Friend the Member for Upminster (Mr. Darvill). I am pleased to represent Ilford and see myself as both a man of Essex--not an Essex man--and a Londoner. I believe strongly that London has to have a voice, not only as a capital city, but as an international city, one of the four or five great cities of the world in terms of its attractiveness to investors and tourists, its cultural diversity and its museums and galleries. Look at the number of people who have come from all over the world, fleeing from persecution, racism, anti-semitism and poverty, to live in London and make it one of the world's great cities.
It is an absolute disgrace that we have gone so many years without having a voice or an effective means of representation in Brussels that would enable us to get much-needed resources to London. I welcome the Bill, because it goes a considerable way towards addressing the democratic deficit that we in London have had for the past 12 years, although certain aspects could be improved. What is most important is that, at last, we have the opportunity to debate the Bill. Perhaps the media will now get away from their personality obsession with the self-publicists who publish articles and give speeches about what they will or will not do; perhaps they will now take a look at the needs of London and at the Bill.
I say that as one who has no intention whatsoever of standing as a candidate for the assembly or for mayor. However, I want to continue to represent my constituents in this place and I believe strongly that it is time that the country and the inner-London media ended their obsession with personalities and started to examine the content of the legislation that will pass through Parliament in the next few months, which aims to improve the quality of life of Londoners and address the issues that concern them.
Other hon. Members have already referred to those issues. The organisation London First, which was established to fill the gap left by the abolition of the GLC,
published a briefing for Members of Parliament. I was interested to note its reference to the fact that London produces 15 per cent. of the nation's gross domestic product and contributes £14 billion a year to other parts of the country. That contribution is right if other parts of the country are poorer and we have a formula for allocating funds.
However, the briefing also points out that 13 of the 20 poorest local authority areas in the country are in London. My local authority is not one of the 13, but my constituency nevertheless contains severe pockets of deprivation, high levels of unemployment and serious social problems that are not recognised generally by the country as a whole. Unemployment levels in many London constituencies are significantly above the national average, yet other parts of the country regard this area as the wealthy south-east. I have heard people denounce what they call "capitalism" in London--and they are not talking about an economic system. It is about time that the whole United Kingdom appreciated the fact that areas of London can be as poor as parts of east Belfast, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Sheffield or any other area that is represented in the House.
There are 289,000 unemployed in London at present, which is more than the totals for Scotland and Wales combined. That is very worrying as we know that the global economic crisis emanating from south Asia has disproportionate consequences for my constituents and many others who work in central London in financial and banking institutions, in insurance and in the information technology industry, which is so important to this city and to the country's economy.
The London Research Centre recently produced an important transport study of four world cities: Paris, New York, Tokyo and London. It concluded:
Reference has been made to the recent report in the Evening Standard about the King's Fund study, which found that Londoners were pessimistic about the health of their city. That poll revealed the priorities for change that Londoners believe a London mayor must adopt upon his election. It found that nine out of 10 Londoners believe that environmental issues are a priority, with some 57 per cent. voting for reductions in traffic, 50 per cent. for improved air quality, 27 per cent. for cleaner streets and 23 per cent. voting for improved housing.
The London authority will not have responsibility for housing; that will remain with the boroughs. That is right, but we need to consider the problems in the outer London boroughs. When I was first elected to the House, six and a half years ago, people were being placed in temporary accommodation in my borough, Redbridge, by authorities such as Westminster in central London, or Hackney and Newham in east London, because they had housing
shortages. There is now a general housing problem in Redbridge and my council has 200 families in bed and breakfast accommodation and is even placing people in Clacton, Southend and Westcliff-on-Sea. That is not good for the families or the children's education. We cannot easily deal with that on a borough-wide basis; we need strategic action to deal with London's serious housing problems, particularly cost.
One of London's problems--I am pleased that this is the subject of another Bill--is that it has borne a disproportionate burden of coping with the increased number of asylum applicants in recent years. I understand that about 40,000 destitute asylum seekers are being supported by London boroughs. That is not only a question of financial support; there are problems of pressures on education, social services and, again, housing.
That is important in this House and in all democratic parties in this country because unscrupulous populists and extremists might try to seize on the issue to gain support in elections for the assembly and the mayor. For that reason, I strongly disagree with my hon. Friend the Member for Brent, East (Mr. Livingstone), who spoke earlier. I believe that a 5 per cent. threshold for votes for the assembly is essential because I do not want fascist and neo-Nazi candidates to gain a foothold among the 25 places in the assembly. A 5 per cent. threshold will act as an important impediment to the development of fascist organisations in London, so it must be included in the Bill.
For similar reasons, the electoral system chosen for the mayor should be strongly supported. The advantage of the supplementary vote is that in an election that will be contested by a huge number of candidates--some serious, some not so serious, some joke candidates and some people with a single-issue agenda--it is conceivable that we could have 20, 30, 50 or 100 candidates vying for the publicity of such a high-profile role. In those circumstances, it would be extremely dangerous to have a first-past-the-post electoral system because we could end up with a victor such as those in Latin America, Georgia or other countries where articulate populists from the media circuses or extremist political groups have succeeded. The Conservative party would not gain enough votes to be in one of those categories. In a first-past-the-post election with many candidates, someone could creep to victory with a low vote, so the supplementary vote is an important democratic safeguard.
I have already mentioned the city's problems. The new transport authority for London will play an important co-ordinating role. The organisation that will be established to provide for the first time in our city a democratic accountability for the police service is long overdue. I am glad that the body is welcomed by the Metropolitan police because that demonstrates that they are forward thinking and that they believe in extending throughout the city the partnership that has been so well established with many boroughs. That is all to the good.
Many members of the assembly will spend a considerable time serving on the police authority; others will serve on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. For that reason, I am delighted that, in making changes between the White Paper and the Bill, Ministers have taken account of what many of us said and have decided that members should be paid. If we are to have a
proper, effective and democratically functioning London authority, we need serious people with the time and commitment to do the job. It would be patently absurd if members of the Welsh Assembly received payment whereas members of the London authority did not. We have taken a step in the right direction, which is to be welcomed.
It is important that the Bill contains safeguards in respect of the mayor's accountability to the authority. The two-thirds majority provision with regard to the budget is welcome, but I hope that in Committee, we can re-examine other aspects of accountability to provide reassurance that should something go wrong, for whatever reason, and should an authoritarian or idiosyncratic person be elected as mayor, there would be no difficulty in applying the appropriate checks and balances.
We also need to make it clear in the election campaign that the Greater London authority is not GLC mark II. It is a new body; everyone knows that it is a new body, and the structures have been established to ensure that it is a new body. One of the most important is that the leader of the GLA will, in public parlance, be the democratically elected mayor. That person will have a popular mandate. It will, therefore, be impossible for anyone to come to a position of power by virtue of a change in the balance within a party group. It is very important that the public are aware of that democratic commitment and the need for a high turnout and maximum involvement in the election.
"Overcrowding is an endemic problem on London's rail and underground. Lack of funding has postponed schemes, such as Crossrail, designed to alleviate central area congestion and reduce the need for interchange."
I am pleased to see that the Minister for Transport in London is in the Chamber. She will recall that I have been pushing crossrail's case in the House for the past 18 months. I represent the constituency of Ilford and I believe that crossrail from Stratford to Paddington would benefit greatly east-west communication across the city and prevent many of the interchange journeys and delays that make travelling difficult for so many people.
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