English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Viscount Trenchard Excerpts

Tuesday 24th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, I am not at all sure that the Government understand that decentralisation and devolution are fundamentally different things. What we have here is a Bill for continued central control of the governance of England, subject to allowing mayors rather more powers. I therefore strongly support these amendments from these Benches, while saying that the practice of the last Conservative Government was rather different from the principles we have heard enunciated today.

I recall vividly that all but one of the councils in the great county of Yorkshire asked, when negotiating with the Government for restructure, for a whole of Yorkshire authority with other authorities underneath it, and it was made clear that it would be conditional on acceptance of a four-mayor structure for Yorkshire. If we were to get the money that the Government were offering, we would have to accept what the Government insisted on having. That is a good example of Conservative decentralisation, and now we have Labour decentralisation.

I am my party’s Cabinet Office spokesman; I am concerned with constitutional issues. In the majority of democratic states, the structure of local and regional, as well as national, government is a constitutional issue. In England, it is dealt with as a matter of convenience. Successive Governments talk a certain amount about how to get civil servants out of London, but the extent to which what local government does is controlled and funded in detail by Whitehall departments means that of course the majority of civil servants have to stay in London because that is where the power is and the decisions are taken.

This is a very flawed Bill. We are doing our best to limit its many problems. This amendment will perhaps limit the damage a little and allow local and regional areas to have some continuing say in how the governance of England should be maintained.

[Viscount Trenchard (Con)]

My Lords, as many noble Lords have said this afternoon, not only on these Benches, the Bill is titled the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill but it seems that it does the exact opposite. I strongly support my noble friends Lady Scott and Lord Jamieson’s amendments in this group.

Amalgamation of councils or the establishment of new combined authorities should definitely not be allowed without local consent. Consent is necessary to ensure that the proposed restructuring reflects the views and needs of the local community. Without local consent, the transfer of contracts and services may not be efficiently handled, and there is a large risk that service continuity will not be maintained. Of course, that will lead to increased public discontent with the changes. Already the public are not happy at the rushed changes being proposed, not only to local government but because the changes themselves are unpopular and probably mostly bad. However, in addition to that, to try to install, from above, elected mayors for every local authority in the land at the same time is very risky and damaging.

Where new combined authorities are to be created, particularly those being directed by the Secretary of State, it is very important that the new structure preserves local identity and sense of place, which is so important, as the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, has often acknowledged during the debates on the Bill. It is also very important to obtain consent from councils because without consent, it is unlikely that adequate discussions will have been held between either councillors or staff, and there is unlikely to be a common understanding of which roles will be affected by the reorganisation.

For these and other reasons already well put forward by my noble friend Lord Jamieson, I support all the amendments in this group and will certainly support my noble friend if she should divide the House.

[Lord Liddle (Lab)]

I will just say very briefly: what a load of hypocrisy from the other side of the House. I was a member of Cumbria County Council from 2013 onwards. In 2021, a Conservative Minister took a decision to ignore our wishes and create two unitary councils in Cumbria instead of what would have been the most sensible solution: a single unitary council. I hope that when my noble friend on the Front Bench responds, she will agree with me that the Government are not proposing what previous Conservative Ministers did.

I say to the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, who I have great respect for, that I see the Bill as a foundation on which further devolution can be built. If you mess around with it, you will prevent the whole thing going ahead.