9

Chapter summary

A ‘yes’ vote will be needed in a referendum before an elected assembly is established in any region.
The timing of referendums will vary between regions. Following consultation with all eight English regions (outside London), the Government will decide which should hold a referendum first. It is possible that a referendum may take place initially in only one, two, or three regions.
Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary legislation, the first referendum(s) should take place during this Parliament. Referendums could take place in other regions later.
Where a regional assembly is established, the Government believes that the local government structure in that region should become 100 per cent unitary.
Where the Government decides that a referendum should be held in a region, the Boundary Committee for England will be asked to review the local government structure and recommend the most effective wholly unitary arrangements in that region, before the referendum is held, so that voters know the implication of a yes vote.
Local government restructuring will go ahead where a region votes for an elected assembly, but not where a region votes against.

9.1 The Government’s Manifesto said that provision should be made for directly elected regional government to go ahead in regions where people decided in a referendum to support it. That is how we determined whether there was popular support for a Scottish Parliament, a National Assembly for Wales, and a Greater London Authority.

9.2 However, the Government recognises that at present interest in elected regional assemblies varies considerably across England. At this stage, interest in holding a referendum appears to be strongest in the three northern regions, with the North East demonstrating the greatest support. It would not make sense to hold referendums in regions that clearly had no appetite for them. So it is possible that a referendum may take place initially in only one, two, or three regions.

9.3 Given the differences in interest between regions at this stage, we do not propose to require referendums to be held at the same time in all eight English regions outside London. Instead, we will decide when regions should hold a referendum primarily by assessing the level of public interest in each region. A subsidiary factor will be the need to avoid unnecessarily distracting local government with unitary reviews where there is only limited demand for a referendum (see paragraphs 9.5 – 9.11).

9.4 In reaching a decision, we will explicitly seek the views of the regional chamber, local authorities, and other key stakeholders in the region. We will also take account of letters and other representations from members of the public. For the regions that did not hold one initially, referendums could take place later, again depending on the Government’s assessment of the relevant factors and following further consultation. The key features of a referendum are set out in Box 9.1.

Box 9.1: Key features of a referendum on an elected regional assembly

The Government intends to bring forward, when Parliamentary time allows, a Bill to provide for referendums on elected regional assemblies. Among other things, the legislation will:

provide that those who may vote in a referendum are electors entitled to vote at local government elections in the region;
provide for the setting of the date of the first and subsequent referendums;
set out the question to be asked at any referendum;
stipulate that, where a region has held a referendum resulting in a ‘no’ vote, a second or subsequent referendum cannot be held for at least another five years;
provide for local government reviews before referendums (see paragraphs 9.8 – 9.11). Referendums will come within the scope of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Among other things this will mean that:
the independent Electoral Commission will be required to publish a statement of its views as to the intelligibility of the referendum question;
the Commission will also be responsible for appointing the Chief Counting Officer for the referendum, who will then appoint counting officers for the local authorities in the region. These officers will be responsible for conducting the referendum;
‘permitted participants’ (political parties, campaign groups and other similar bodies) in the referendum must register with the Electoral Commission. The Commission will be able to decide to designate a group to represent the ‘yes’ campaign and a group to represent the ‘no’ campaign at any referendum. If it does so, these groups will be entitled to financial support and other assistance (such as the distribution of a referendum address free of charge and the use of rooms free of charge for public meetings);
the Secretary of State may, after consulting the Electoral Commission, make an order capping the amount that a permitted participant in a referendum can spend;
expenditure by other bodies and individuals at a referendum will also be regulated;
there will be statutory stages in the run-up to a referendum vote, including a period for permitted participants to register with the Commission and the campaign period itself. In total, the Government envisages a ‘referendum period’ of around 10–12 weeks;
there will be restrictions on the promotional material which central and local government can issue in the 28 day campaign period before the referendum date.

The Government intends that referendums should be capable of being held either by all-postal voting or by a traditional ballot, and to use electronic counting of votes. In time, we would also envisage referendums being held by electronic voting.

9.5 Besides giving people in each region the opportunity to decide in a referendum whether they want an elected regional assembly, the Manifesto said that regional assemblies would be provided for ‘where predominantly unitary local government is established’. Although an elected regional assembly would to some extent simply apply direct democratic accountability to central government activities in the regions, it would still comprise a third elected tier – region, county, district – below national government, and the Government recognises the concern that this would be one tier too many. There are good arguments for establishing regional assemblies in a way that does not add an extra tier of government:

• elected regional assemblies will need to work closely with the local authorities in their region. Moving to a single tier of local government in such circumstances will simplify relationships for both local authorities and regional assemblies. This should lead to more effective local and regional government and facilitate effective partnerships between the two tiers;

• similarly, the creation of regional assemblies will mean that many existing public and private sector bodies will have to enter into a new series of relationships. Moving to a single tier of local government in such circumstances will avoid creating extra complexity for them;

• voters are not always clear at present about what activities are carried out by which tier of local government (see Box 9.2). To add a further tier would confuse matters still further. Moving to a single tier of local government in such circumstances should reduce this confusion: the local authority will deliver local services and act as the community champion and advocate for local people, whilst the regional assembly will set strategic priorities.

9.6 These problems will be less acute in regions where most people already live in unitary local authority areas. But if there were two tiers of local government plus an elected assembly in the same region, an undesirable degree of complexity would be bound to remain. We have therefore concluded that in any region where an elected assembly is established, there should be an associated move to a wholly unitary local government structure. There are clear precedents for such a structure. Almost half the population of England outside London already lives in unitary areas – as shown in Box 9.3 – and London, Scotland and Wales also have wholly unitary structures of local government.

Box 9.3: Organisation of local government in the regions

As the table below shows, the distribution of local authorities differs significantly by region. In particular, four of the regions include the six main conurbations outside London, which are now made up entirely of unitary authorities. So, for example, Merseyside and Greater Manchester between them account for 4 million of the North West’s 6.9 million population, and the Leeds/Bradford and Sheffield conurbations account for 3.4 million of the 5 million population of Yorkshire and the Humber. The other four regions only include unitary authorities created as a result of local government reorganisation in the mid-1990s, and have two tiers of local government outside the unitary towns and cities with populations of around 100,000 or more.

Region	Percentage of population in unitary areas	Unitary authorities as a proportion of all authorities
London Yorkshire and the Humber North East North West West Midlands South West South East East Midlands East of England	100% 89% 68% 67% 60% 38% 25% 20% 12%	33/33 (100%) 14/22 (64%) 10/25 (40%) 19/46 (41%) 10/38 (26%) 9/51 (18%) 12/74 (16%) 4/45 (9%) 4/54 (7%)

9.7 Where a move to wholly unitary local government is being considered or implemented, we believe that it is very important that the local authorities concerned continue to focus on service delivery. Other local authorities certainly should not be distracted. Whilst the existing powers for the Electoral Commission and the Boundary Committee for England to undertake local government structure reviews will remain in place, we have no intention of initiating an England-wide review of local government structure. The process we are proposing will only affect two-tier authorities in regions where there is to be a referendum on establishing an elected assembly. Existing unitary authorities in such regions and existing shire districts and counties elsewhere will not be affected.

9.8 Whilst the referendum in any region would be on the merits of an elected regional assembly, we believe that it is important that voters in existing two-tier areas should know the implications for their local authorities before deciding how to vote. We therefore propose to take powers so that, in regions where we decide that a referendum should be held, the Boundary Committee would first conduct a review of local government structure – to a timetable specified by the Government, after consultation with the Committee – in those parts of the region which still have two tiers.

9.9 The Committee would make recommendations to Ministers that would deliver the best 100 per cent unitary structure in the region if it were to have an elected regional assembly. The Committee would not review the existing unitary local authorities, whose status and boundaries would not change. As it can do for structure reviews under existing legislation, the Government would issue guidance to the Committee. But, within the context of the Government’s request for recommendations for a wholly unitary structure, the Committee’s statutory duty would be to make proposals that appeared to it to be desirable, having regard to the need ‘to reflect the identities and interests of local communities and to secure effective and convenient local government’. (These are the criteria that already apply to local government structure reviews.)

9.10 The Government would consider the Committee’s recommendations and, if necessary, ask it for further advice on specific points. The Government would then set the date of the referendum and subsequently publish a short, definitive statement of its proposals. This would include the changes to local government structure that the Government proposed to recommend to Parliament for approval if the region voted for an elected regional assembly in the referendum. Voters in the region would then be aware of the implications for local government when deciding whether to have an elected regional assembly.

9.11 If there was a ‘yes’ vote, the local government reorganisation would be taken forward in parallel with the creation of the regional assembly. There would be no requirement that the reorganisation had to be completed before an assembly could be established. However, we would expect the order setting out the new structure for a region to have been approved by Parliament before the region’s assembly was established. If the referendum resulted in a ‘no’ vote, the local government restructuring proposals would not go ahead.

9.12 We intend to introduce a Bill to provide for referendums and associated local government reviews when Parliamentary time allows, so that the first assembly referendum(s) can be held during this Parliament. Once at least one region has voted for an elected assembly, we intend, again when Parliamentary time allows, to introduce a further Bill providing for the establishment of elected regional assemblies. This Bill would allow elected assemblies to be set up in each of the English regions outside Greater London and would make provision for their detailed powers, duties and constitution along the lines set out in this White Paper. In the region(s) that had already voted ‘yes’ in a referendum, elections would then be held within months of the Bill becoming law. In practice, this means that the first regional assembly could be up and running early in the next Parliament.

9.13 In other regions, no elected assembly could be set up until a region had voted for one in a referendum, following the sequence set out in Box 9.4. As noted in paragraph 9.4, referendums in these regions would take place some time after the initial referendum(s), depending on the Government’s assessment of the relevant factors.

Box 9.4: The expected procedure for establishing an elected regional assembly

*The ‘go live’ dates for the assembly and the new local government structures need not be the same date and, in practice, almost certainly will not be.

9.14 Where a function is transferred to an elected regional assembly and the staff involved in the delivery of that function are transferred with it, the transfers will be on the same basis as if the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations (TUPE) applied and in accordance with the Cabinet Office statement of practice on Staff Transfers in the Public Sector, which was published in January 2000.

9.15 Where there is a reorganisation of local government as a result of a vote in a referendum to set up an elected regional assembly, the Government would make appropriate orders to transfer the functions of the existing county and dirstrict councils to a new unitary authority and make appropriate provision for the staff affected by the transfer.

9.16 We will keep organisations, staff, and trades unions likely to be affected informed of developments and will consult them on detailed proposals in due course.

9.17 In developing proposals for regional governance in England, this White Paper has sought to draw upon available research and evidence concerning the potential form, and impact, of elected regional assemblies. Reviews have been undertaken of international experience (see annex E) and the plethora of regional research, commentary, and advocacy papers which were partially reported in the 2000 report on Regional Government in England. Further details of research concerning regional governance structures can be found in annex J, along with details of other relevant publications.

9.18 Strengthening the regions and taking forward the work on elected regional assemblies requires a joined-up approach across government and collective consideration of the major policy issues. As such, the Cabinet Committee on the Nations and Regions, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, will review progress and co-ordinate the proposals set out in this White Paper.

9.19 We will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the policies set out in this White Paper as part of our overall commitment to ensuring that policies are kept under review and are evidence-based. DTLR’s medium/long term regional research programme includes provision for an overall evaluation of the impact and effectiveness of the operation of elected regional assemblies established in the future; in the short/medium term, we will monitor the activities of regional chambers, including an evaluation of the regional chambers fund and a review of the chambers’ scrutiny of the regional development agencies. We will also keep under review the need for other research into the processes, and impacts, of regional governance more widely. Collectively, this research will assist the Government and others to better understand the implications of these policies and the processes by which they are implemented.

9.20 We will provide further information about the timetable for future action, including the monitoring and evaluation proposed, on the DTLR website by the end of the year. This will include details of current and planned research and evaluation relevant to the development of elected regional assemblies.

9.21 It would be useful to receive views on the proposal on stakeholder involvement in elected regional assemblies set out in paragraph 7.15 by the end of August 2002. We would also be interested in any other views you may have on the proposals set out in this White Paper. Please let us know if you wish your response to remain confidential.

9.22 Views should be sent to:
Regional Policy Unit (White Paper)
Department for Transport,
Local Government and the Regions Zone
1/A4 Eland House
Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5DU.
Responses can also be emailed to regions.whitepaper@dtlr.gov.uk

9.23 The Government will begin to assess the English regions against the criteria set out in paragraph 9.3 as soon as is practicable. We want to give people in each region the chance to decide on their future, not to impose uniform solutions from the centre. Establishing elected assemblies in the English regions is a process rather than a single event. These are the first steps towards elected regional assemblies; we expect momentum to build up over the next few years.

9.24 Elected assemblies are a great opportunity for the English regions. People will have an important choice to make. Strong regions matter to the Government – and should matter to everyone in the UK. It is up to each region how they choose to develop and use their strengths. But only elected regional assemblies can offer the chance to deliver more efficient, inclusive, democratic government through: