Member

I am also clear in my mind that we should try and ensure that, in so far as we have a single tier of local government, which will increasingly be of larger scale through unitaries, we ensure that we have a local tier of governance that is accessible to people, not by devolving or creating some intermediate structure—too many structures, tiers and levels of government—but by ensuring that we have parishes. That can be true anywhere. At the moment, about 20% of the country is unparished.