Boris Johnson beefs up powers for City Hall
Author: Local Government Chronicle |
The Mayor of London has moved to scrap the London Development Agency and take the capital’s housing and regeneration budget under direct mayoral control.
Boris Johnson set out a series of proposals to streamline the Greater London Authority, which he said would removal “needless bureaucracy and overlapping functions across public bodies”.
The proposals include scrapping the London Development Agency, the mayor’s economic development agency, and bringing its functions in house as well as taking on the powers and budgets of the Greater London office of the Homes and Communities Agency.
As a result, the London housing and regeneration would become an executive arm of arm of the GLA and the LDA would cease to exist as a separate body, although its functions would continue, the Mr Johnson said.
Mr Johnson also said he planned to reform the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) as a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), reporting directly to the Mayor and democratically accountable to Londoners. Control of the OPLC is currently shared between central government and the mayor’s office.
The proposals would also see the mayor handed greater control over the award of rail franchises on line into London, while the London Skills and Employment Board, which the mayor chairs, would be given the power to approve the allocation of the adult skills budget in London.
Mr Johnson also proposed that the functions of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) should be divided between the mayor and the London Assembly, with the assembly taking on the scrutiny functions and the mayor taking on executive functions, creating a policing board for London. He added that City Hall should also have a greater say in health provision in the capital.
He also proposed that responsibility for the Royal Parks Agency and the Port of London Authority should be devolved from Whitehall to the Mayor.
Mr Johnson also set out his plans for greater powers for the London Assembly, proposing that the assembly be given an enhanced role on strategy development as well as an enhanced scrutiny function that matches the increase in mayoral powers.
The Mayor said: “The capital is a global powerhouse with a population as large as Wales and Scotland combined, yet despite providing this world city with clear leadership, the mayoralty has few formal powers, despite substantial informal powers. This will no longer do.
“Too much is controlled by Whitehall and measured by standards that don’t apply specifically to Londoners, meaning our devolution settlement has remained weak with much room for improvement, particularly where decisions should be taken by those in the local communities they affect. It is time to act, and with a new coalition government strongly supportive of devolving powers we must seize the day for London.
The proposals, which would be subject to government approval and changes in legislation, were welcomed by communities secretary Eric Pickles. He said the government was “committed to genuine decentralisation of power”.
He said: “In London, this means transferring power and responsibility down from Whitehall and its quangos progressively downwards to City Hall, to London boroughs and to local neighbourhoods.
Mr Pickles said the government had already moved to scrap the Government Office for London and would now work towards building a political consensus for further devolution of power. He said a Localism Bill in the autumn would provide an opportunity to amend legislation accordingly.