BBC Press Office 2002

On the Record - White Paper on regional assemblies
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On Thursday 9 May the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott MP, will publish a White Paper offering each region a referendum on elected regional assemblies.
Today’s On the Record on BBC ONE reveals that the White Paper will fail to meet the demands of pro-devolutionist campaigners.
On the Record has learnt that the White Paper will:
· limit the role of the regional assemblies so that they will largely be strategic and advisory in function. Assemblies will only have between 25 and 35 members and they will have far fewer powers than, for example, the Welsh Assembly.· insist that before a referendum on regional government is held, the electoral commission will have to come up with proposals to abolish one tier of local government in that region. That means in areas which still have county councils, either the county or the local district would have to go.· Spending limits will be capped more rigorously than local councils.
Louise Ellman MP, former leader of Liverpool Council and long time campaigner for regional devolution, tells On the Record: "I don't think people will vote for a talking shop, but they will vote for a body that will make a difference and they'll want to see changes in, for example, transport, in health, in education, and in the economy, but they have to see a difference and that difference has to matter."
She also highlights the divisions that exist over devolution at the very top of government: "… while ministers like John Prescott have always advocated regional devolution, the Prime Minister has been considerably less supportive and, who knows, maybe the bill that comes forward now will create the hurdles that he hopes will stop it happening."
Trevor Phillips, Deputy Chairman of the Greater London Assembly, calls on the Government to relax central control and give local government greater autonomy: "If people think the local government is really just a sort of shouting match between slightly powerless politicians, what they're going to do is they're going to put people in the council seat, who are protests, they are jokes, they are way out in the fringes. If we want local government to really have a serious purpose, to attract serious and effective people, then you've got to give it the powers, you've got to give it the resources, to carry out the job, and if they fail, then you have to let them answer to the people. Central government can't really be nanny on local government."
Baroness Shirley Williams, Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords, warns that there are dangers for the Government if it refuses to devolve real power to the regions of England.
"In the North-east they'll say, if we were Scots it wouldn't be like this. In the south west they'll say if we were Welsh it wouldn't be like this. It's the recipe in my view for very very great tensions, between the different parts of the United Kingdom, and I don't think it keeps the United Kingdom united," she said.
"The Number 10 Policy Unit has become a Prime Minister's department and so what you get is a very great deal of powerful control from the centre and a lot of bright young men and women who feel they justify themselves by coming out with initiatives that they then impose on the people, whatever innovation you get at local level tends to be snuffed out by the structure of central control."
On the Record will be broadcast on BBC ONE at Noon.
Notes to Editors
If you use any of the above quotes in any news story or article please credit BBC ONE's On the Record.