Examination of Witness (Questions 740-743)
TONY TRAVERS
8 JULY 2008
Q740 Dr Palmer: What do you see as
the key differences between the revenue and funding base for local
government and for the GOL and do you reckon that one ought to
be adjusted to match the other?
Tony Travers: I share many of
Ken Livingstone's previously expressed views about weakness of
local government finance in England but separately in Scotland
and Wales. I think that, in fact, the Mayor of London, in a classic
UK asymmetry, was arguably given somewhat greater financial powers
than either the Welsh or Scottish Governments, and by that I mean
the Mayor does have access to the precept but also has access
to a very large income from fees and charges, particularly the
very buoyant yield of London Transport fares. This gives the Mayor
of London significantly greater freedom to act in terms of changing
his spending than arguably is true for either the Scottish or
Welsh institutions, and that is an asymmetry, an oddity, given
that those institutions have significantly greater power. That
is not the answer quite to the question of whether it would be
better if this institution had greater fiscal autonomy, to which
my answer would be, yes, but I also think that would be true for
local government as a whole.
Q741 Dr Palmer: Actually you favour
something like the Scottish option where they could raise a lower
tax at county level?
Tony Travers: The Scottish Government
does, indeed, have the power to raise income tax and also to reduce
it by three pence in the basic rate of income tax. Yes, I do.
I would accept that, and I think it would lead to beneficial effects
on turn-out in elections. I think if that was at stake, if income
tax rates were at stake, it would make elections even more contested.
Q742 Mr Sharma: How could provision
be made for local government to have similar powers to the GLA
to determine the allocation of resources?
Tony Travers: I think that the
rest of local government, although it is a different model, within
its cabinet, as they mostly now are, does have pretty significant
freedom. It does not have much freedom in the setting of its council
tax, but they have freedom within the resources that they collect
from council tax and government grant, and they have been given
slightly greater freedoms in the last year or two to use the total
of the resources that they have. I am not sure that the Mayor
of London is that much less constrained or has that much more
freedom, to put it the other way round, than most local authorities.
My personal view is that it would be better for devolved government
in Britain if both the GLA and local authorities were to be given
greater freedom to raise and lower their own taxes, but also greater
freedom then to decide how they dealt with their budgets. So I
think it is all of them taken together, and in many ways the Mayor
of London, other than the fact that he does have access to this
huge set of fees and charges from public transport fares and,
indeed, the congestion charge, is not in such a significantly
different position from local government as a whole.
Q743 Chairman: Thank you very much
indeed. We are very grateful to you. It has been a brief session
because we were interrupted earlier.
Tony Travers: I understand. Thank
you very much for inviting me.
Chairman: Thank you very much, Mr Travers.
We have work to do in private session.
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