English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Lord Black of Brentwood Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 11th February 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friends Lord Black of Brentwood and Lady Stowell of Beeston, as well as the noble Lord, Lord Storey, for their support on this amendment. My noble friend Lady Stowell will unfortunately be unable to speak as she is in a meeting of another committee of your Lordships’ House.

Amendment 202 would leave out paragraph 6 of Schedule 27, which amends the Local Government Act 2000. In so doing, it would protect existing requirements for local authorities to publish the resolutions that they make in local newspapers as public notices.

Local newspapers remain a crucial source of information for people across our country. Indeed, the local news sector reaches approximately 42 million people. For many residents, these publications are not simply a preferred medium but their primary and most trusted means of receiving local news and democratic information. In many cases, were it not for these local newspapers, the information would simply not be accessible.

For the Government to cut people off from this information, particularly at a time when they seek to reorganise local government in so many swathes of our country, would leave many local residents in the dark. As councils undergo significant structural change, the Government should surely be encouraging local authorities to go to even greater lengths to inform people of changes to governance structures and much more.

There is a misconception that these dry technical notices are tucked away in the back of the paper. Far from it; they are often accompanied with news articles and commentary by journalists, encouraging further scrutiny of local decisions. In an age of social media and clickbait, where what news we read is determined by foreign technology platforms and their obscure algorithms, local journalism acts as an increasingly important safeguard against misinformation and general ignorance.

Independent research suggests that 80% of adults in the UK trust the news and information that they see in their local newspapers far higher than the figure for most national and international media. This level of trust is not easily replicated and should not be taken for granted. Local democracy and local journalism operate in a symbiotic relationship, which I think we would be wise to maintain.

Whereas the current requirements ensure consistency across the country, making the change that the Government have proposed in this Bill—that is, allowing local authorities to publicise governance changes in a “manner they think appropriate”—will allow some decisions to be publicised less than others and receive less public scrutiny. It will mean that residents in one local authority area may be kept more informed than those in another, creating an inequality of access to information based purely on geography.

Local authorities should not be allowed to shy away from local residents and voters. At a time when the Government are permitting many of them to hide away from the ballot box, it is even more important that they be held to account in the public forum.

Furthermore, the Government are already committed to reviewing statutory notices in their forthcoming local media strategy. To legislate on public notices now, before we have the findings of that review, would surely be premature. I think it would be irresponsible of the Government to have us consider these proposals before we are all equipped with the facts.

I urge the Minister to reconsider the approach that the Government are taking in this way, at least until we have the further evidence to inform the best way forward. I beg to move.

[Lord Black of Brentwood (Con)]

My Lords, I support Amendment 202 in the name of my noble friend Lord Parkinson, to which I have added my name. I apologise that I was unable to take part in the Second Reading debate. This is a very important issue for our local media and I am most grateful to my noble friend for bringing it forward for debate. I declare my interests as deputy chairman of the Telegraph Media Group and chairman of the News Media Association. My noble friend powerfully made the arguments in favour of the case for removing these provisions of the Bill, so I want to emphasise only a few points.

Inevitably, the first concerns the financial sustainability of the local press. Whenever we debate media issues there is consistently strong support across the House for our local media and appreciation of the vital role that it plays in local democracy, scrutinising those in positions of power in local authorities and holding local politicians to account. But investigative local journalism of this sort is expensive, and it is becoming harder and harder for local publishers to support it, not just because of the structural changes in the media market but because of the continuing encroachment of the BBC into local news.

Revenues and, therefore, investment are under huge pressure. The publication of public notices is, in a highly visible way in local newspapers, aided by the Public Notice Portal as a one-stop shop—a digital database for all public notices. It is one of the remaining and vital sources of revenues for the local press, and it is crucial that it is preserved. Removing the obligation will place a massive question mark over the sustainability of local news. The Government and, indeed, Parliament cannot will the ends of a free press and local democratic scrutiny without also willing the means.

Secondly, it must be of great concern to us all that, as my noble friend has set out, at a time of significant structural change in local government—the biggest in a generation—which we have heard so much about this afternoon, we should have maximum transparency about the activities of local authorities and those in charge of them. Giving local authorities the power to flag important issues simply as they see fit hands them a wide-ranging ability to keep decisions secret, in many cases, by shielding them from large swathes of the public who still rely on published local media for information.

Local media has a vital role to play in ensuring that public notices are translated into lay language by local journalists writing about them in a way that is accessible and easily understood by local electors. As my noble friend said, if you remove the obligation to publish notices in print, you remove the incentive and ability of reporters to help the public understand and scrutinise them. That cannot be right at a time of such upheaval in local government.

Finally, although the vast majority of noble Lords in this place are able to access news online, we must recognise that not all citizens are equipped with digital access or knowledge. Age UK estimates that there are around 2.4 million digitally-excluded older people—that is nearly one in five of that section of society—who have very limited use of the internet, many using it less than once a month if at all. Yet local services and the decisions of local authorities are hugely important to them, perhaps more so than any other group in the population. They rely on their printed local paper for such news and information, and we should not be excluding them from that ability to have a say in the democratic process.

The Prime Minister says that his Government

“will always be on the side of pensioners”.

Let him prove it in deeds as well as words. I hope that the Grand Committee will support this amendment.

[Lord Storey (LD)]

My Lords, I have added my name to this amendment. Good local government and community empowerment need a strong local media to shine a light on the council chamber, to offer scrutiny, and to encourage communities. However, over the past 20 years, we have seen the gradual decline of local news and media. I look at my own city of Liverpool: 20 years ago, there was a morning newspaper, the Daily Post, and in the evening, the Liverpool Echo. There was a very strong BBC local radio station, Radio Merseyside, and there was a local commercial station, Radio City.

Since that time, we have seen BBC local radio cut a considerable number of jobs and commercial radio become syndicated, with jobs going to London and being lost in Liverpool. The answer from the commercial radio sector—it even changed the name—is to provide news on the hour, which is often from London, as well. We have lost that link with the community. There are very few occasions when any investigative journalism is taking place, and it can be hugely important to the well-being of the city of Liverpool.

Sadly, the elected mayor was recently arrested and charged and commissioners were sent in. None of that would have happened if a very small digital news provider had actually done an investigation and seen what was happening. For the good of local government, and because of the importance of community empowerment, we need a strong local media. Do not take my word for it; your Lordships have had two Select Committees that looked at local news, both of which said, “Yes, we need to keep and protect local journalism and local news, and these are some of the ways we can do it”.

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, because I had forgotten about this and it is really important. I hope the Government will take note, because it is also about saving local jobs, often in very poor communities. I hope the Government realise that we need a strong, robust local media to support local government, to shine a light on it and to celebrate what is happening there.