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8 pm
In the Deputy Prime Minister's foreword to "A Mayor and an Assembly for London", he stated:
The Deputy Prime Minister refers in his foreword to Londonwide solutions to
What is significant in the new structure of government in London is that the mayor will be elected and the assembly will be elected, but, in the development of those strategies, the mayor will have to consult every London borough and the common council of the City corporation. Under the Bill before us, the common council will receive its mandate from 5,000 residents, but that mandate will be swamped by the business vote which will be determined not by the people who create the wealth of those businesses, but by those who own them. In some cases, those people do not even have to attend their business in the City.
If the mayor and the assembly are to determine the important strategies for London overall and for my constituency in particular, I want the vote of the City corporation, which will determine its input into the consultations, to be determined by residents, or at least by residents and workers in the City corporation area. That is the significance of the amendments.
Under the Greater London Authority Bill, the court of common council of the City corporation will be consulted on the mayor's development of the transport strategy, the London development agency strategy, the London biodiversity action plan, the municipal waste management strategy, the London air quality strategy and the London ambient noise strategy. I shall give an example relating to my constituency.
The London ambient noise strategy is critical in my area, and in west London generally, because of Heathrow airport. My hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Colman) has led some important debates in the House on the impact of air traffic noise on residents in west London. In the development of the noise strategy for London, the mayor will consult my borough, of course, but will consult on an equal basis with the common council of the City corporation. At present the decisions of that City corporation will largely be dominated not by the residents or the people who work in the area, but by the businesses.
That means that the noise strategy for my area will be influenced not on any democratic mandate, not by people who are interested in living and working in London, but by people whose sole interest, in many cases, is to make money out of London. People who live or work in London know what the noise is like, they know about the problems of congestion and waste, and they have a view on those matters. Of course businesses have a transport interest, but for them, profit will always override environmental concerns.
I want my environment protected by the new strategic authority for London, the London mayor and the assembly, but I want it protected in consultation with democratic institutions--people who are aware of the experiences of Londoners, and of what it is like to live and to work in London. If the City corporation has a role in all those policy areas without the democratic mandate of the residents or the people who work in its area, that will undermine the credibility of the new structures of governance of London.
Mr. Shaun Woodward (Witney):
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. Can he explain to the House the difference, if there is any, between his position and that of the City of London Labour party, which stated recently:
Mr. McDonnell:
I cannot speak for the City of London Labour party, although from discussions I believe that its views are very similar to mine. It is trying to get the best possible deal for local people. I can understand that. The best deal at present is to try to amend the Bill in such a way as to enhance the democratic rights of local residents, so that they are not swamped by businesses. The City of London Labour party has had to accept a series of compromises in its proposals to the Committee. If the hon. Gentleman wishes, I will provide him with a copy of the minutes of the Committee.
The City of London Labour party accepted that the extension of the democratic franchise to employees was a subject for another day, as it could not be included in the Bill. I am at one with the thrust of the argument. I shall give way if other members of the Committee want to come in, but that is the thrust of the discussion that took place in Committee.
The City of London Labour party is trying to get the best that it can from the legislation. I shall explain to the hon. Gentleman on another occasion the concept of transitional demand, which he may not have come across in the Conservative tradition. The City of London Labour party is trying to ensure that at least some minor improvements are made, even if we cannot go the whole way.
I am trying to explain my position on the amendments, and at a later date I shall be happy to explain my overall position, but I could sum it up in one word: abolition. I accept, as do the City of London Labour party and the other petitioner, Mr. Malcolm Matson and others, that we must take what we can. Even if we cannot get universal adult suffrage, which exists throughout the rest of the country and which we fought so hard to achieve, at least let us get a recognition of the fact that businesses exist only as a result of their workers, and that we should give the vote to the employees.
I hope that that answers the hon. Gentleman. I shall be happy to explain to him in further detail the overall policy to be pursued through abolition of the City corporation and its division into the individual boroughs or transfer to
the auspices of the new mayor and assembly. It would be a wonderful financial base for the new strategic authority for London, but I am afraid that we have missed that opportunity. I tried to move an amendment to that effect on the Greater London Authority Bill, but we never reached it.
I return to the import of the City of London corporation's role and the need to ensure that it will be representative of residents and employees. Within the new structure of London government, it will have a say equal to that of those other authorities which have a direct democratic mandate. Therefore, my amendments seek to ensure that, if we cannot go to the full extent of the democratic mandate, we at least move towards a halfway house. That recognises that there may well be a special area with large numbers of people working within it who should have their own say.
There are opportunities within the legislation to ensure a modernising approach which will gear up the new structure of the City corporation, which will come out of the Bill, to meet more effectively the challenges of the new structure of governance for London overall.
If the new City corporation reflects its residents and those who work within it rather than just businesses, there will be a significant voice to be heard on issues such as traffic congestion. The workers within the City corporation endure a daily life of traffic congestion from one end of the square mile to the other. There have been some improvements, but we need to hear from those who work in that area what it is like there, what are their concerns and what can be done to improve traffic congestion but--because no traffic problem in London can be solved within the square mile--within the strategic approach that the new strategic authority for London will undertake. That is why it is critical to engage those people in this debate. It is not just a matter of consulting them, but of ensuring that they participate democratically in the debate. That can come only if they have the right to vote.
Other aspects that I have identified within the new strategic authority are ambient noise, waste management, biodiversity and the London development agency. I do not want to stray too far from the Bill, but I hope that the London development agency will be the engine for economic growth within London. We need to take on board the voice of business, and that is contained within the composition of the London development partnership, which it is hoped will become part of the new London development agency. We also need to ensure that, within London's economic development programme, we take into account the voice of those with a hands-on approach to working within the City--in other words, the employees, the workers. I want them to have a say in the development of London's economy.
In the new structure of governance for London, such people will be consulted. Clause 33 of the Greater London Authority Bill obliges the mayor to consult on all the strategies of the Assembly, the functional bodies, the London local boroughs and the common council. What better than to have feeding into the views of the City corporation the views of those who create the wealth within the City on issues such as our city's economic development. I would welcome their views to nourish the discussion.
"When this government was elected less than a year ago, we embarked on a programme of democratic renewal in Britain. An essential part of this is modernising government in London".
At that stage we were campaigning for the Greater London Authority and the structure of the assembly.
The City corporation is part of that structure, and the Deputy Prime Minister made it clear that we were proposing
"new arrangements tailor-made for London with a powerful directly elected Mayor with hands-on responsibility for transport, economic development, strategic planning and the environment."
The directly elected mayor will have significant powers and huge resources, which are to be exercised through consultation in the construction of strategies in each of those areas.
"congestion, pollution, poverty and social exclusion--all of which reduce the quality of life for Londoners",
which under the subsequent legislation must be exercised in consultation with the London boroughs and with the common council, which is counted as a London borough.
"We accept that the common council will be better able to serve the financial City if the electors to which those representatives are accountable include those financial institutions."
Can the hon. Gentleman explain his policy and the difference between that and the policy of the City of London Labour party, and whether he subscribes to the policies of those on his Front Bench?
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