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Local and Regional Government

I am delighted to have secured this debate on the future of local and regional government. I am pleased that we can discuss such an apparently wide-ranging issue in one of our 90-minute debates. Hon. Members who want to take part in this debate will recognise the importance of establishing a clear relationship between local and regional government powers and national Government policy. I start by commenting on the Government's plans of the past eight years for the devolution of central Government and Government agency powers to so-called regional assemblies and how that relates to local government. I shall also comment on certain aspects of my constituency—I am sure that hon. Members would be surprised if I did not mention Cornwall a few times—including the long-term unitary authority, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, in the far west of my constituency. The Government have stated their intentions towards regional assemblies in various Acts governing preparations for their establishment. The Minister will doubtless have a clear recollection of the substantial defeat of the Government's proposal in the north-east just over a year ago, and I shall comment on the progress made since then and the Government's intentions following the outcome of that heavy defeat of their approach to devolution. I should make it clear that I do not question or even criticise the Government's desire for genuine devolution and for completion of the work that they started. Many hon. Members on the Liberal Democrat Benches and elsewhere strongly support, as I do, the Government's efforts, and indeed successes, in devolving power to the Scottish Parliament, to the Welsh Assembly, and to London. However, I want to tease from the Minister, as I hope others will, how the Government intend to fill the many vacuums in Government policy in order to deliver genuine devolution to the rest of the country.