§ Mrs. Roeasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will announce the names of the members of the staff commission he intends to establish to safeguard the interests of staff affected by the proposed abolition of the Greater London council and the six metropolitan county councils.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinI am about to consult representative bodies of the relevant authorities and of the staff concerned as regards the following proposed appointments to the staff commission:
Chairman
Sir Philip Woodfield, KCB, CBE, former Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office.
Members
Mr. Francis Amos, CBE, BSc, Dip Arch, SPDip, RIBA, PPRTPI, FRSA, Senior Fellow University of Birmingham, former Chief Executive, Birmingham city council, and former city planning officer, Liverpool city council.
Miss Pat Downs, BA, BComm, FIPM, FBIM, MATM, former director of personnel F. W. Woolworths, former area personnel
248W—provided through local authorities in England — housing benefits, and other expenditure directly financed by grants outside aggregate Exchequer grant. Following is a table similar to table 2.18.1 in Cmnd. 9143, Vol II, which gives figures for the years 1978–79 to 1984–85.
appropriate) and revised estimates and outturns (where available) for local authorities in England for 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84 and 1984–85.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinThe information is as follows:
officer for the Ipswich and District group of hospitals and Ex- Civil Service commissioner.
Mr. Geoffrey Drain, CBE, JP, BA, LLB, General Secretary NALGO 1973–1983.
Miss Joyce Hindley, BA, FIPM, former personnel officer with Cheshire county council, and former education and training officer with Cadbury Brothers Limited.
§ Mrs. Rumboldasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will make a further statement on the Government's detailed proposals for the abolition of the Greater London council and the metropolitan county councils.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinThe Government are firmly committed to carrying through their manifesto promise to abolish an unnecessary tier of local government and to produce a major transfer of power and responsibility to the London borough and metropolitan district councils. The legislation to effect this will be introduced into Parliament early in the next Session and, subject to the will of Parliament, abolition will take effect on 1 April 1986.
249WThe Government have completed the main round of consultations on their original proposals published in the White Paper "Streamlining the Cities" (Cmnd. 9063) and the associated consultation documents. We have carefully considered all the views put to us, and my right hon. Friend and I have announced a number of revisions to those original proposals.
I have today placed in the Library of the House and in the Vote Office a paper setting out in detail the Government's proposals for the reallocation of functions following the abolition of the Greater London council and the six metropolitan county councils. This indicates the way in which GLC and MCC functions will be dealt with in the legislation, the drafting of which is well advanced.
It will be seen that, contrary to the impression given by recent misleading advertising, almost all the functions will devolve, either individually or jointly, on to the local, democratically elected, councils — in London, the London borough councils, and, in the metropolitan county areas, the metropolitan district councils. Abolition will therefore mean the decentralisation of powers to the local level and the end to an expensive and unnecessary two-tier system of local government in London and the metropolitan counties. This will bring savings in costs, and consequent benefits to ratepayers. It will bring benefits also to the users of local services because the councils responsible for those services will be more accessible and more responsive to their needs.
I am publishing this paper now so as to give the House, the authorities concerned and the public an early and comprehensive account of the way in which functions will be reallocated in the Bill to be introduced in the next Session. It will also enable the borough and district councils to begin considering their plans for the running of functions which will become their responsibility in a little over a year and a half. My Department will be proposing meetings with those authorities in September. Further discussions will take place also with the London Boroughs Association.
I hope that the GLC and MCCs—and the Association of Metropolitan Authorities—will now reconsider their refusal to enter into detailed discussions about the new structure. I hope that they will recognise that they owe it to their staffs and their ratepayers now to engage in discussions about the details of the future arrangements and the transition to those arrangements.