English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Lord Wilson of Sedgefield Excerpts

Monday 2nd February 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Moylan (Con)]

I congratulate the noble Baroness on succeeding me as chairman of the London Councils transport and environment committee. Does she agree that the answer to the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, in relation to refusing the Mayor of London additional rail routes in London, is that that is the policy of the current Government, who as I understand it intend to maintain the devolved routes as they are at the moment but have a policy of creating no more? One does not need to look to a political explanation of these decisions at all. I assume that, because they are in the same party, there is only sweetness and light between the Minister and the Mayor of London.

Does the noble Baroness also agree that it surely cannot all be sweetness and light in London at the moment, because London Councils has a policy that the boroughs should replace the assembly and have a relationship with the mayor much on the national level being proposed in this Bill, whereby the mayor is chairman of a combined authority? It seems to me that they feel that they are not sufficiently in the room, if they would like to be a great deal more so through a mechanism such as that.

These points are very good. While I am on my feet, I say to the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, that my experience of London Councils and of holding the position that the noble Baroness now does is that politics in the sense of pure party politics does not get very much in the way when boroughs are collaborating with each other, the mayor, Transport for London and so on. However, there are structural differences. The truth is that the interests of the boroughs and those of Transport for London, for example, are not always the same. That form of institutional politics is very apparent. Finally, I would say—

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Wilson of Sedgefield) (Lab)]

I think the noble Lord was making an intervention. Interventions have to be short, and his is not.

[Lord Moylan (Con)]

By the time I have finished, it will be short. I was asking the noble Baroness whether she agreed that none of these considerations is particularly relevant because the problem that I drew attention to in my amendment, with which she does not agree, is not because of a disagreement between the boroughs and the mayor, which could be sorted out by sitting in a room; it is about an inherently internal conflict of interest between the mayor as the person responsible for housing policy and the mayor as chairman of Transport for London now being given the power to dispose of property in place of the Secretary of State.

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

Can I just say to the noble Lord that interventions are supposed to be short and I think he is taking advantage of the Committee?

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

Before we move on, I point out to the Committee that the finishing time is not 8.45 pm but 7.45 pm. There was an error on the daily note.

Schedule 9: Key route network roads

Amendment 115

Moved by

--- Later in debate ---

Amendment 122 withdrawn.

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

Before the noble Baroness moves her amendment, I remind noble Lords, because some were not here earlier, that we are finishing at around 7.45 pm, not 8.45 pm as outlined in today’s list. There was an administrative error. We should be finishing in around 40 minutes.

Amendment 122A

Tabled by