English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Earl of Devon Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 8th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Devon (CB)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Griffin.

I note my interest as the Earl of Devon and—perhaps unsurprisingly—will speak to the impact of the Bill on that county, where I co-chair the Exeter Partnership, promoting the interface between the city and its rural hinterland. I am a programme board member for the Great South West, and I liaised with Devon County Council and Exeter City Council on their respective—but regrettably conflicting—local government review proposals. I sat on the recent Devon Housing Commission chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Best, and I am a partner in a law firm originating in Devon that practises in many areas impacted by the Bill. I also operate a Devon-based heritage, land and farming business, which interacts with various tiers of local government, not least in licensing, economic development and planning.

Despite so many touchpoints, I am not a politician, so, like the noble Baroness, Lady Griffin, I remain somewhat mystified by the workings of local government and its many levels. I am therefore benefiting immensely from the wisdom of this informed and erudite debate. If I remain ignorant of local government after a decade of involvement, I am concerned about how we educate and inform those who might be less engaged. Many people—the typical local resident; the consumer of local public services who is due to elect their local leadership after the passage of this Bill; the new strategic mayors; and the new unitary local councillors—must be bemused by the complexities of local governance, with its various and changing boundaries and tiers. Perhaps this explains the lack of participation in local authority elections, about which we have heard. Voters simply do not know what they are asked to vote for.

To the extent that the Bill simplifies matters and creates a consistent and level playing field across England, it therefore has my tentative support. But can the Minister outline what plans are in place to provide an education for the nation on the reforms that are taking place, so that we decrease the disenfranchisement that arises from our collective ignorance?

As a feudalist who owes his presence here to the regional autonomy of the south-west during the 13th and 14th centuries, I can only applaud the Government’s efforts to return us to the status quo ante. It is ironic that, as we are banished from Westminster due to our antiquated nature, the Government seek to return to the regionalism that typified the Plantagenet era. That was before the trauma of the Wars of the Roses, which caused the Tudors to centralise authority, thereby creating one of the most centralised countries in the world, which now has some of the highest levels of geographic inequality in Europe.

Historical context aside, given the poverty suffered by once-prosperous rural and coastal communities in the south-west, the peninsula’s best bet for economic and social development stems from greater regional autonomy, so that it can look to its strengths—the traditions of trade, innovation and exploration—to chart a path to a sustainable and better future. I therefore support the broad ambitions of the Bill, but I reserve judgment until I understand how it will impact the south-west. Specifically, what form of strategic authority does His Majesty’s Government foresee for the region? Was Luke Pollard correct when he told the Great South West conference that Cornwall cannot go it alone and must combine with its neighbours to form a strategic mayoralty? That would necessarily mix the cream with the jam, I say with a nod to the noble Lord, Lord Teverson.

Equally, what does local government reorganisation look like for Devon? I understand that the closing date for LGR submissions saw a smorgasbord of proposals from Plymouth, Torbay, Exeter and Devon councils, and maybe more—indicative perhaps of the county’s long-standing tradition of political diversity. How will those different proposals be resolved? Was it really wise to invite existing local governments to propose their own reorganisation, when their response will necessarily be informed by their own political interests? Turkeys rarely vote for Christmas.

Perhaps a more pressing concern is what will happen in the interim while local government is reshaped. Looking specifically at housing and the target of 1.5 million new homes, planning departments surely need to be focused on nothing but delivery. However, with recent amendments to the NPPF and the upheavals due to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the landscape for local planning is in great flux. Add to that the promise of wholesale local government reorganisation—some 10 planning authorities in Devon are due to be rationalised to two, three or maybe four unitary authorities—and we can only pity the local departments, which are generally understaffed and overworked and may not even have a job in a few years’ time. The Devon Housing Commission found that one of the major challenges to the delivery of affordable housing was uncertainty in the planning process, and that will only get worse.

Also of concern is the status of rural communities. The Government must be aware of the productivity gap between rural and urban, as well as the terrible poverty that exists, often unnoticed, in rural and coastal communities. As an advocate for the interdependence between rural and urban societies, I believe that we should seek, wherever possible, better integration of the two for the benefit of both. However, there is a danger that the specific challenges of rural communities will be ignored and even exacerbated where they are governed by a leadership that has a predominantly urban interest. The expansion of strategic authority coverage will include large swathes of rural England for the first time, and steps must be taken to ensure that rural residents are protected and able to thrive. There is not a single mention of “rural” in the Bill’s 360 pages, so I invite the Government to consider amendments to establish a rural commissioner as well as duties to consider rural needs.

There are multiple further aspects of the Bill that are of interest, including the environmental and climate change competences. With my tech lawyer hat on, I note that the future-proofing of local private hire vehicles is of some interest, particularly having spent time in California, where Waymo autonomous vehicles are predominant. With my property barrister hat on, I will be interested to understand the policy behind the abolition of upwards-only rent reviews. On assets of community value, I recommend to the House the tireless work of the Plunkett Foundation; I look to forward to sharing with noble Lords its insightful work in this space.

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Earl of Devon Excerpts

Committee stage
Tuesday 20th January 2026 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Devon (CB)]

My Lords, I was not going to speak on this group, but the amendments from the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, made me think that it might be helpful to ask the Minister to explain where she sees land management and agricultural policy fitting in any of these categories. This is a bit of a precursor to the rural affairs amendment coming up, but it would be helpful at this stage to hear that. Food security is key to the agricultural policy that the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, raised. I note my interests as a farmer in Devon. I also sit on the food security programme board for the Great South West. I am interested to understand whether the Government think that strategic authorities will have some competence over those areas. It will be interesting to hear what the Minister thinks.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)]

My Lords, I want to speak to the amendment from the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty. I became leader of Brighton council in 1987. One of the first things that we did was triple our spending on the Brighton Festival. At the time it seemed like a fairly minor thing, but it triggered a lot of inward investment through leverage. It demonstrated to me the importance and the value of public sector investment in the arts. Since then, the Brighton Festival has grown; it is now one of the largest arts festivals in the country. But you have to make that important statement to attract extra funding and inward investment.

I currently chair a seafront regeneration board for Brighton and Hove City Council. One of the things I am quite determined to do is to bring a new major art gallery to our city, because it is one of the missing elements. Those things have a long-term strategic benefit and that is why I think adding this as an area of competence to strategic authorities is very important.

After all, it is one of the Government’s missions. We often talk about the £128 billion value to the UK economy of the arts. If we can embed that statutorily, we can grow and develop our reputation. We are one of the arts growth leaders in the world economy. It would greatly help our growth mission and our economic and industrial mission if we were to place this as an important strategic responsibility.

Without that, as others have said, it is not there—it is voluntary and it is very much up to the localities to determine, as they rightly should, what their priorities are. But it is an encouragement, and that long-term commitment and encouragement will make a very significant difference to the development of arts and cultural services across the UK.

[The Earl of Devon (CB)]

My Lords, I would like to add a small voice to the chorus of support for these amendments. I do so from the perspective of my role as the owner of a cultural institution in Devon and my work on the Exeter place partnership, which has been particularly successful in encouraging arts and heritage activities within the city over recent years, such as Radio 1’s Big Weekend, the Rugby World Cup and the Women’s Rugby World Cup. It has been a tremendous success for the city.

I do not want to repeat what has been so excellently stated by many noble Lords. It does not need repeating. But there is one area to consider that maybe has not been emphasised: the importance for the strategic authorities created under this Bill of having competency over the arts and creative industries within their region. If they do not have the competency over these areas within their region, obviously someone else is going to, and that will be a central authority. That is going to homogenise and fail to develop the cultural identity of the strategic authority region. If we can bestow that core competency on the strategic authority, we will see the identity of that strategic authority grow and improve. It will better sustain the health and vibrancy of the strategic authority itself—not just the region but the strategic authority—and we should think of that.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, we on these Benches very much support the inclusion of this measure—above all because, if it is enlisted as one of the areas of competence, it will strengthen the argument that strategic authorities will have to make with the all-powerful Treasury that this is one of the funding elements that must be included.

I declare an interest: I live in Saltaire, which is a world heritage site. We are an open world heritage site, which means that we cannot charge for entry. The delicacy of our relations with Bradford Council, with a very strapped budget in terms of providing the resources to cope with the tourists and visitors, is very much one of the things we have to struggle with. As other noble Lords have said, Bradford has just had the most successful City of Culture year. It has done a huge amount for social cohesion and morale—indeed, for all the things the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, was talking about earlier, in terms of expanding people’s horizons and bringing people together.

Culture has been funded through a range of different streams. We all know about and remember the battles with Arts Council England about funding areas outside London. We have seen the way in which local councils used to pull cultural elements together through education in schools, local music arrangements and so on. They have dismantled those music hubs, which have been played around with—they have been constructed and put together, then taken apart—and schools have become very separate. If we are to build back to local intervention, local help and regional support, culture needs to be stressed as one of the things that is of enormous benefit to all of us, both socially and economically. It has been squeezed as councils at all levels have had to squeeze their budgets; they have found that culture is one of the things that has to go, as other things seem more important immediately, but it leaves a huge gap in the long run.