Reacting to today’s report from the Commons Modernisation Committee on Regional Accountability, the New Local Government Network (NLGN) welcomed their backing for Regional Select Committees but warned that some of the details could stifle rather than promote regional autonomy.

The report backs Regional Select Committees – first proposed by NLGN in 2006 – to scrutinise the work of unelected Regional Development Agencies. However NLGN disagrees with the recommendation that the Committees should reflect the political representation of the House of Commons rather than that of their region, arguing that importing MPs from other regions to make up the numbers risks undermining the very point of regional scrutiny.

Chris Leslie, Director of New Local Government Network said:

“With no prospect of directly elected regional assemblies, the next best substitute for plugging the accountability gap must rest in the hands of MPs and Council Leaders working together to scrutinise the billions spent by RDAs and other regional agencies.

“For this reason, we warmly welcome the recommendation to create Regional Committees – this is an initiative we have long argued for – but we had hoped they would go further and be designed to better fit regional circumstances.

“We would prefer the Regional Committees to be composed according to party representation within each region, rather than following the party proportions of the Commons as a whole regardless of the region they represent. Regional Select Committees will have scrutiny and reporting powers alone – they cannot vote down policies and have no executive power - so the Government can afford to relax if they do not have a majority everywhere. Importing MPs from other regions to make up the numbers risks undermining the very point of regional scrutiny. We would therefore urge the Government to amend this particular recommendation of the Modernisation Select Committee when it comes before the House.

“Regional Committees could be a far more efficient and cheaper scrutiny mechanism than separate regional assemblies, because it makes existing elected MPs do this job as well as their traditional parliamentary roles. It would be far better if these Regional Committees were able to co-opt several Council Leaders to take part in their deliberations, so that there could be a fusion between local and national accountability, jointly overseeing the work of the RDAs and Regional Ministers. We hope that the Government will encourage each Regional Committee to co-opt Leaders into their work, even if in a non-voting capacity.”