Member

If the Government intend real devolution rather than conditional decentralisation, there has to be a counterweight within England to Whitehall and Westminster. Gordon Brown’s radical proposals envisaged a transformed second Chamber in Westminster representing the English regions and the other nations as that counterweight. The mayoral council is a much weaker version of this, but at least it is something. Some sort of counterweight capable of arguing with Whitehall on the balance between central, regional and local initiatives, and arguing also about the fiscal distribution of funds for regional and local economies, is essential. Without it, this Bill offers only the appearance of devolution, thinly disguising the underlying reality of continuing central control.