Regional assembly (England)
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The regional chambers of
Greater London has a directly elected London Assembly, which was established by separate legislation and is part of the Greater London Authority.
Role
Their original defined role was to channel
Membership
The eight regional chambers as defined by the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 were not directly elected. About two-thirds of assembly members were appointees from the
, the remaining one-third were appointees from other regional interest groups.The London Assembly is part of a wider Greater London Authority and has 25 directly elected members. Its role is defined in the Greater London Authority Act 1999.
The regional chambers
There was some inconsistency in the naming of the individual assemblies. Each chamber adopted either "regional assembly" or "assembly":
- East of England Regional Assembly (abolished March 2010)
- East Midlands Regional Assembly (abolished March 2010)
- North East Assembly (abolished March 2009)
- North West Regional Assembly (abolished June 2008)
- South East England Regional Assembly (abolished March 2009)
- South West Regional Assembly (abolished May 2009)
- West Midlands Regional Assembly (abolished March 2010)
- Yorkshire and Humber Assembly (abolished March 2009)
The London Assembly was established as a directly elected body by separate legislation and is part of the Greater London Authority. It continues to exist after the abolition of the eight regional chambers.
Each assembly corresponded to a region of England.
Plans for elected regional assemblies
In May 2002, the then Labour UK government published a
The Assemblies were expected to be elected by an
On 12 February 2004, Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford announced that elected Assemblies would be able to direct local authorities to refuse strategic planning applications that are not in the region's best interest. They would be able to look across local boundary constraints and ensure planning decisions are made with region-wide interests taken into account. On 8 July 2004, it was announced that the referendums would be held on 4 November, but on 22 July Raynsford announced that only the North East England vote would go ahead on that date. This region was chosen because the government thought it was the most likely to approve the proposal.
However,
The 'no' vote by the North East also affected the Labour Government's attempt to address the West Lothian question, because the government had canvassed regional assemblies as a partial solution to this anomaly.[3]
The English Regions Network (ERN) was the umbrella organisation for England's eight partnership Regional Assemblies. While the London Assembly worked with ERN on some issues it was not a full member of the Network.[citation needed]
Structure and powers of the proposed assemblies
The
The draft bill proposed the following structure:
- The assembly would be a body corporatewith a distinct legal identity.
- Each assembly would be composed of between 25 and 35 assembly members elected by the Additional Member System.
- The assembly would select one member as the Chairman and another as Deputy Chairman to preside over its debates.
- The assembly would have an Executive (cabinet) composed of a Leader and between two and six Executive Members.
The draft bill would have given the assemblies the following powers:
- Promotion of economic development
- Promotion of social development
- Promote health, safety and security of the community
- Reduce health inequalities
- Enhance individual participation in society
- Improve the availability of good housing
- Improve skills and the availability of training
- Improve the availability of cultural and recreational activities
- Improvement and protection of the environment
- Additional functions and duties that the Secretary of State thinks appropriate
Abolition and replacement
On 17 July 2007 the UK government published the Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration.[6] The review brought forward the Government's plans to alter the structure of regional governance in England known as the Single Regional Strategy. The impact of the review was that the regional assemblies in their current form and function would not continue and that the regional development agencies were given executive responsibility for developing the single regional strategy.[7]
The regional chambers were abolished between 2008 and 2010 with their executive functions transferring to the regional development agencies. Local authorities were given an increased role in scrutiny at the regional level including scrutiny of regional strategies and the RDAs through participation in new local authority leaders' boards which were established in each region. The two bodies would jointly produce new single regional strategies, with Ministers exercising an oversight function.[8]
Local authority leaders' boards
Following the abolition of the regional chambers, smaller local authority leaders' boards took over responsibilities for scrutiny of RDAs and single regional plans.[9]
The first local authority leaders' board,
In June 2010, the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced plans to remove funding from the new boards and to remove their statutory functions. The boards may continue as voluntary associations of council leaders.[10] Regional development agencies were abolished on 31 March 2012, with their functions being taken over by smaller local enterprise partnerships which are not based on regional boundaries.
Alternative arrangements
Cornish Assembly
In
Merseyside Assembly
In July 2004, five Merseyside MPs, led by George Howarth MP, launched a Manifesto for Merseyside which proposed a Merseyside Assembly, which would take a form similar to the existing London Assembly. As well as the five Merseyside boroughs, the proposals also included the Cheshire authorities of Halton and Ellesmere Port / Neston. The main argument was that the North West was too large and did not represent a cultural or economic area; something Merseyside did better.[14][15]
City regions
Since the
Devolved English parliament
The Campaign for an English Parliament, the minor English Democrats party, and several Conservative Party MPs, see a devolved English parliament as another alternative to regional assemblies. They believe that rather than breaking up the historic nation of England, it should be preserved - with its own parliament similar to that of the Scottish Parliament - and that this is the only way the West Lothian question can be resolved while maintaining the United Kingdom.
See also
- English votes for English laws
- Historical and alternative regions of England
- List of England-related topics
- Rule of the Major-Generals (1655–1657) under which England and Wales were divided into 10 administrative regions
- Regional ministers (2007–2010)
References
- ^ Regional Development Agencies Act 1998
- ^ Your Region, Your Choice: Revitalising the English Regions (PDF). London, United Kingdom: Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions. 2002.
- ^ Oonagh Gay The West Lothian Question (PDF) Standard Note: SN/PC/2586 Page 9 and footnote 21 "21 For a description of government policy see Library Standard Note no 3176 The draft regional assemblies bill" Archived January 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Draft Regional Assemblies Bill (PDF). House of Commons.
- ISBN 978-0-10-162852-5.
- ^ HM Treasury - Review of sub-national economic development and regeneration Archived 2007-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Regional assemblies will be axed". BBC News. 17 July 2007. Retrieved 18 July 2007.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-03. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) DCLG - ^ http://www.4nw.org.uk/members.php# [dead link]
- ^ Scrapping regional bureaucracy will save millions - Newsroom - Communities and Local Government
- ^ "Cornish Assembly".
- ^ "Blair gets Cornish assembly call". BBC News. 11 December 2001.
- ^ "Prescott pressed on assembly poll". BBC News. 1 March 2003.
- ^ Howarth, George. "Regional Government - The case for a Merseyside Assembly". George Howarth MP. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
- ^ "MP's call to scrap assembly vote". BBC News. 5 November 2004.