Threat of higher tax to pay for new tier of politicians warns PPC Janice
Labour Ministers to resurrect plans for regional assemblies
The Labour Government’s plans for a new tier of regional politicians and a regional levy on council tax are back on the political agenda warned Janice Small, PPC for Batley and Spen, today. It has emerged that the new Minister for Regional Government intends to champion John Prescott’s lost cause of an elected regional assembly for Yorkshire and the Humber.
· Elected regional assemblies back on Ministers’ agenda : Rosie Winterton, Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber, is the new Minister for ‘Regional Economic Coordination’. She worked closely with John Prescott on his plans for regional assemblies. In a recent Ministerial keynote speech on regional government, Ms Winterton said she would not let elected regional government “slip off the agenda”, “I have always been in favour of regional government”, it is “the obvious answer” and “we will come back to it”.
· Labour ignore ‘no’ vote to regional government : Elected regional assemblies had been killed off when the public overwhelmingly rejected regional government in the 2004 North East referendum. Yet the unelected regional assemblies still exist, but have merely changed their brass plaques, and are morphing into an even more convoluted structure of unelected Regional Development Agencies and unelected Regional Leaders Forums. New ‘Integrated Regional Strategies’ are to be imposed over the head of Kirklees Council.
· New regional politicians to be bankrolled by regional council tax : Under Labour’s blueprint, regional assemblies will need a new tier of regional politicians and regional elections. The elected assemblies will be funded by a regional levy on council tax, like the Greater London Authority. The assemblies would be able to “set a higher precept within the region to fund additional spending”. In London, the regional tier of government now costs £310 a year on Band D bills. .
Janice said:
“Regional assemblies are now back from the dead under Labour. Gordon Brown won’t listen to the verdict of the people who rejected a new tier of regional politicians and the regional council tax to pay for it. Only Conservatives will dismantle Labour’s distant tiers of regional government and give power back to local communities.
“These quangos are unaccountable, unelected, useless, toothless beasts that cost the taxpayer dearly. It is time to scrap all tiers of regional government. Local council taxpayers do not have the pockets to fund the overbloated offices and six figure salaries of chief executives, public relations executives and management consultants.”
Notes to Editors
LABOUR PLANS FOR ELECTED REGIONAL ASSEMBLIES BACK ON
Rosie Winterton is the new Minister for Local Government and Minister for Regional Economic Coordination, as well as the Regional Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber. She was John Prescott’s Head of Office from 1994 to 1997 and an active campaigner in the 2004 referendum in favour of an elected regional assembly in the North East.
In a keynote speech to the Local Government Information Unit on 15 July on regional government, she asserted:
“I have always been in favour of regional government. I worked with John Prescott on the Alternative Regional Strategy, which formed the basis of many of the structures we see today. I campaigned hard in the referendum in the North East, and I was disappointed with the outcome”
http://www.communities.gov.uk/speeches/corporate/doregionsmatter
Local Government Chronicle magazine reports in more detail:
“Local government minister Rosie Winterton has spoken of her continuing support for elected regional government. Ms Winterton, a campaigner for a ‘yes’ vote in the 2004 referendum on creating an elected regional assembly for the north east, said she did not want elected regional government to ‘slip off the agenda’.
Speaking at a conference about regional government, Ms Winterton said elected regional assemblies were the obvious solution to the democratic deficit caused by giving regional development agencies responsibility for drafting regional strategies. ‘I keep banging on about it because I think we will come back to it eventually,’ she said. ‘The obvious answer [to the democratic deficit] is to have elections and democracy. That’s my personal view.’
Talking to LGC afterwards, Ms Winterton said: ‘I’ve had a long-term, very personal interest in regional government. I was very disappointed we didn’t win that referendum. I campaigned for it and I suspect it will be something people will return to’.”
Source: Local Government Chronicle, 23 July 2009.
http://www.lgcplus.com/policy-and-politics/constitutional-reform/winterton-backs-elected-regional-government/5004190.article
The 2004 North East regional government referendum was overwhelming rejected by 78% to 22%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_East_referendum#The_result
REGIONAL POLITICIANS WILL MEAN REGIONAL COUNCIL TAX
The Government’s plans for elected regional assemblies have require regional assemblies to impose a levy on council tax, similar to the Greater London Authority.
John Prescott’s Regions White Paper explained: ‘The simplest means for an elected assembly to raise money from people within its region is a precept on the council tax. This is the means by which the Greater London Authority can raise additional funds and by which various other public bodies, such as county councils and police authorities, are partly funded. An assembly will set the level of the precept, but the money will be collected by councils in the region as part of the existing arrangements for collecting council tax… An elected assembly will also be allowed to set a higher precept within the region to fund additional spending if it considered this desirable.’ (DTLR, Your Region, Your Choice, Cm 5511, May 2002, p.45-6).
In 2009-10, as a result of the largesse of Ken Livingstone, the Greater London Authority charges a levy of £310 a year on a Band D bill; of this, excluding police and fire, £30 is attributable to the ‘core’ GLA (GLA, The Greater London Authority’s Consolidated Budget and Component Budgets for 2009-10, February 2009, p.39). Boris Johnson has frozen the level of council tax in his first year in office.
http://www.london.gov.uk/gla/budget/current_budget.jsp
John Prescott’s Regions White Paper stated that each regional assembly would have 25-35 elected members (Your Region, Your Choice, 2002, p.53). They would be paid, full-time posts (p.57). Across the eight government office regions, this would mean the creation of up to 280 more full-time politicians.
The White Paper also stated that “a regional assembly will have around 200 members of staff, excluding staff working for the Regional Development Agency” (p.57). This would entail bankrolling at least 1,600 more bureaucrats across the eight regional assemblies - on top of other regional quangos, town halls and central government.
The example of the Greater London Authority under Ken Livingstone shows how the initial Government estimates on the number of staff were hopelessly under-estimated, as the staff soared to over 600 compared to the Government’s original estimate of 250.
UNELECTED REGIONAL ASSEMBLIES LIVE ON
In July 2007, after Gordon Brown took office, Labour Ministers spun that the unelected regional assemblies would be abolished (BBC News Online, ‘Regional Assemblies will be axed’, 17 July 2007).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6903108.stm
Yet the planning and housing powers of the regional assemblies are merely being transferred to the unelected Regional Development Agencies, whilst the unelected regional assemblies are rebranding themselves as Regional Leaders’ Boards. For example, the North West Regional Assembly (NWRA) has merely renamed itself ‘4NW’.
“Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the role of (a) regional planning bodies and (b) regional development agencies is regarding decisions on regional funding allocations.
Ms Rosie Winterton: Each English region outside London provides regional funding advice to Ministers. The advice is based on work led by the regional development agency and regional assembly (or leaders’ board, where such a body has replaced the assembly), supported by the Government office. However, final decisions on regional funding allocations are a matter for Ministers.”
Hansard , 25 June 2009, col. 1109W.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090625/text/90625w0013.htm#0906265003397
“Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in respect of which Government Office regions (a) her Department and (b) the relevant Government Office has been notified that the regional assembly is to be replaced by a Leaders’ Board; and what the name and address of each such board will be. [268882]
John Healey: CLG and the relevant Government Offices have been notified of new governance working arrangements in the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside, South East and North West.
These new bodies, or committees connected to them, will be recognised as the Regional Planning Body as an interim arrangement until commencement of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill when Local Authority Leaders’ Boards following consultation by participating authorities on a scheme will be approved by the Secretary of State.
The names and addresses of these new bodies are as follows:
Association of North East Councils
The Axis Building
Maingate, Kingsway North
Team Valley
Gateshead
NE11 0NQ
Local Government Yorkshire and Humber
18 King Street
Wakefield
West Yorkshire
WF1 2SQ
South East England Leaders Board
Berkeley House
Cross Lanes
Guildford GU1 1UN
4NW
Wigan Investment Centre
Waterside Drive
Wigan
WN3 5BA.”
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