Government proposals interesting, but consultation must be genuine - Lib Dems

10.00.00am GMT Wed 30th Nov 2005

Liberal Democrats at the London Assembly have described the issue of the Government's paper on proposals to give the Greater London Authority additional powers and responsibilities as "interesting."

Graham Tope , Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly group said:

"This is an interesting paper that we welcome with the qualification that the government must be genuinely consulting and must not have made up its mind already. Devolution should mean that the Mayor is entitled to deal with all London wide issues which central government does not have a genuinely good reason for controlling, and which are not more appropriate for the boroughs. But it is not just the what, it is also the how.

"Any Mayor must make real efforts to work as openly and transparently as possible, and resist the temptations inherent in a single-person executive. The current Mayor works particularly closely with a tiny group of people - not only should his closest advisers be held to account by the Assembly, his appointments should be subject to confirmatory hearings by the Assembly so that Londoners know the people the Mayor relies on."

The Liberal Democrats are also suggesting that Mayoral 'quangos are opposed and they and are concerned at the additional powers of appointment by the Mayor to functional bodies which are mooted in the paper.

Graham Tope said:

"The London Development Agency has far too great a tendency to take decisions in private, and Transport for London is the body whose work attracts a consistently high level of complaints - notwithstanding the improvements in services. These are the two bodies at present most closely controlled by the Mayor.

"We oppose the proposal that the Mayor should chair the Metropolitan Police Authority. The problem is said to be public confusion about who runs the Police. This would be a recipe not just for confusion but for real conflict over who has operational control. The Mayor as Chair of the MPA would make it less, not more accountable to Londoners.

"This is the opportunity at least to limit the mayoral term, so that no Mayor can "go on and on". There must be stronger powers for the Assembly.

"There must be stronger powers for the Assembly. We welcome proposals for powers to the Assembly to block mayoral strategies, but will continue to argue that to be effective we need real powers to block the budget, both as a whole and individual lines of it. At present the Mayor needs the support of only one-third of the Assembly, and we can only deal with the grand total."

Graham Tope concluded:

"This the chance for a thorough review of how the GLA operates. It should not be driven by personalities, though of course experience will influence it. Above all, it should produce what best delivers for Londoners, and not focus on increasing presidential, personality-led politics which may be superficially attractive but can be very dangerous."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

A link to the ODPM's consultation document can be found at http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1161897