Miatta Fahnbulleh MP: speeches

Speeches

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  Clause 21 will ensure that mayors have the means to drive effective engagement across the communities to generate economic prosperity. We have already talked about local partners playing a vital role in this process, and in helping mayors to address shared challenges and seize opportunities, but to be very clear—I stress this again—the clause does not oblige local partners to support matters they oppose. Rather, it creates a duty to respond to a mayor’s request to meet or engage on an issue, facilitating constructive dialogue even where there may be disagreement. Mayors have a powerful local voice—we know that; we see it across the country where there are mayors—but that soft power does not always allow them to drive forward change. The clause strengthens a mayor’s existing soft power and encourages collaboration with local partners, so they can drive growth in and deliver improvement to their communities.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  Yes. Where a local transport authority exists, the power will essentially be conferred on it. We will discuss the detail of the regulatory framework when we come to schedule 5. I commend the clause to the Committee. Question put and agreed to. Clause 23 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill. Schedule 5 Providers of micromobility vehicles

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  We are clear that the duty to collaborate will include a wide range of partners. We are going through a process of engaging with and consulting mayors to make sure that in secondary legislation we fully reflect the sorts of partner they want around the table. We believe that trade unions should have a place at the table. We are taking a set of actions to empower trade unions, because we think it is the right thing to do for our economy, so it is important that we include them within the duty to collaborate.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  The clause gives the Secretary of State the ability to empower local authorities to license on-street micromobility services, such as dockless cycle schemes, operating in their areas. The market for those services is currently unregulated. Operators do not have to get permission for services, and local leaders are limited in their ability to address antisocial behaviour and poor parking. We have all seen the issues created by rental e-bikes obstructing pavements. It is apparent in my constituency, and I know that other hon. Members will have it in theirs. The Government remain committed to keeping streets safe, and the clause will tackle this directly. Local leaders have been vocal about their need for more powers to ensure that schemes work for their communities. We want more shared cycle schemes across the country, and ensuring that local leaders have the powers to manage them properly will be key to delivering sustainable, long-term growth of these services. The industry is also keen to see regulation, but the patchwork system is creating burdens on business and holding back growth and investment in the sector.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  There are two issues with the amendment. First, we believe that it could create an inconsistency between the powers of mayoral combined authorities and their equivalents elsewhere in England, because it would change only the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. More fundamentally, we have already talked about the duty to bring local partners around the table. Underneath that is a presumption and expectation that all relevant parties, including parties in the private sector, that are fundamental to the mayor driving outcomes on behalf of his voters and residents come together to deliver things. There is a vital role for trade unions both in being a clear voice for workers in an area and in being a fundamental part of that economic partnership to drive outcomes.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion for tabling new clause 19. I have a lot of sympathy and support for the concept of citizens assemblies, so I have sympathy for the intention behind the new clause, but it is really important that mayors, as locally elected leaders in their region, should have the ability to decide how best to engage with their local communities. Mayors can already convene citizens assemblies using functional and general powers of competence as a way of hearing from local people and ensuring that local voices play a role in decision making. I give the hon. Lady the example of the Mayor of the West Midlands, and the Mayor of South Yorkshire, who held a citizens assembly on climate—they are already happening across the country. Once the Bill becomes law, all mayors will have the general power of competence that we have talked about, which will enable them to convene citizens assemblies should they wish to do so. However, as other hon. Members have said, placing a duty on all mayors to convene a citizens assembly, irrespective of whether it is appropriate or how costly it is, would take away the local choice of mayors to decide how best to engage with their residents. I therefore ask the hon. Lady not to press the new clause. On new clause 42, I again completely recognise the spirit in which it has been tabled. It will be important for all mayors to engage with the wider public and with local authorities when delivering their functions. On that we are completely agreed. However, the Government cannot accept the new clause, because, as my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury said, it would impose a disproportionate and unworkable administrative burden on mayors of strategic authorities. By way of illustration, North Yorkshire alone comprises 729 individual parishes, which are organised into 412 town and parish councils. Expecting a mayor personally to discharge the proposed duty in respect of each body would, I fear, be impracticable and inevitably crowd out the time needed for the office’s other core strategic responsibilities: driving change and economic outcomes across the area. Furthermore, many public service providers will be commissioned and contract-managed by local authorities. Superimposing a parallel mayoral duty would blur lines of accountability, cut across established commissioning arrangements, and risk duplication, confusion and delay. I therefore hope that the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon will not press the new clause, however well-intentioned it may be. Question put and agreed to. Clause 21, as amended, accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill. Clause 22 Duty of mayors to collaborate

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I will respond to my hon. Friend’s question, and then I will address the amendments. It absolutely does apply to anchor organisations—the key people we would expect to have around the table for particular issues. We expect it to be private sector, although I think the power of direction might be a bit weaker for the mayor in that context. In order to advance an issue, it will be for the mayor to be clear about the partners that they need around the table, both private and public, and to bring them around the table. The experience of mayors has been that most of this is done voluntarily, because most partners in a place want to work together to deliver the outcome for their people. This provides an additional tool that the mayor can draw on in instances where, for whatever reason, partners are not automatically willing to come around the table. Turning to the amendments, first, I want to flag that as drafted, they are focused on the Mayor of London. We believe they introduce an inconsistency between the powers of the Mayor of London and his counterparts elsewhere in England. They also run contrary to a central aim of the Bill, which is to standardise and simplify the legislative framework for devolution across England, including London. Clause 21 includes a power for the mayor to convene meetings with local partners on relevant local matters, and amendment 295 seeks to remove the corresponding requirement on local partners to respond. The power is designed to enable a mayor to bring the right people around the table; it is not an enforceable call-in power. That is not what we are proposing here; rather, it is aimed at empowering a mayor to work with local partners to drive delivery and better outcomes for their communities. Members will see that the requirement on local partners is proportionate and not overly burdensome. It does not obligate partners to engage or collaborate, but it requires them to respond to requests from a mayor. We hope that that triggers a process where most parties will be willing to engage or move forward. Amendment 294 would allow the Mayor of London to specify local partners where other mayors should not, which would lead to a piecemeal and unclear definition of local partners, risking confusion at all level. Defining local partners in regulation allows for appropriate parliamentary scrutiny and will provide a single, coherent definition across England that can be understood by both mayors and local partners.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I do not want to drag out this debate any further, but I think the hon. Gentleman is over-egging this. This is a duty to collaborate; it is not about decision making. Any mayor worth their salt will collaborate with key businesses in their local area if they want to drive economic outcomes. We have also been clear that we will put in place regulations outlining the set of partners, including local partners. I hope the Opposition understand that it is not always second nature for mayors to decide that they want to collaborate with trade unions. [ Interruption. ] Well, our view is that they should, because we think it is important that workers are part of that collaboration and work as part of that partnership.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  We are clear that if a mayor is serious about driving economic outcomes in a way that works for their community, they must collaborate with a set of partners. That 100% includes private business, and will include anchor organisations, but it should also include trade unions. The duty to collaborate will be broadly set. We will lay out the set of partners in regulation, but that will be dictated by the feedback that we get from mayors. I therefore ask that amendment 296 be withdrawn. Question put, That the amendment be made.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  This Government have committed to empowering mayors to make the right decisions for their local communities—a thing that runs through every aspect of the Bill. The new power to convene meetings with local partners and the corresponding duty on those partners to respond to any meeting requests will strengthen the ability of the mayor to drive local action. The use of the negative procedure provides an appropriate and proportionate level of scrutiny for the regulations. The amendments will enable us to efficiently deliver the legislative framework needed to support our mayors to effectively use their powers to engage local partners and deliver for their local communities.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  We will specify in secondary legislation the range of local partners, based on feedback from mayors. Again, this is not compulsion; we think it is really important that civic organisations, local leaders and the mayoral strategic authority engage with organised labour. That is part of the economic model that we think is right, because it means we have the voice of organised labour around the table, driving outcomes on behalf of workers. I know the Conservative party struggles with that, because the idea of empowering workers is a bit of a strain for them, but Labour is very clear. We are building a model that ensures we have the voice and representation of labour alongside businesses and our civic leaders, driving change in the economy for working people.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady for tabling the amendment. I have a lot of sympathy for the principle behind it. The framework that we have set out is necessarily broad in scope to capture all types of micromobility schemes, including those that may emerge in the future. We have made it clear, however, that the exception power ensures proportionality in licensing to avoid unnecessary burdens on, and the criminalisation of, businesses such as those to which she referred that operate small, low-impact schemes. We have specified the type of exemptions that we expect we might make in order to keep the scope of the power contained—for example, community schemes with a handful of cycles, or cycle hire on privately owned but publicly accessible land. While I accept the sentiment behind her proposals, I do not believe that the amendment is needed. I therefore ask that it be withdrawn.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  Since its introduction via the Localism Act 2011, the general power of competence has given local authorities the legal capacity to do anything that an individual can do that is not specifically prohibited in law. It has allowed local authorities to undertake a wider range of activities and reduced the need for the Government to issue legal clarifications or new legislative instruments. Extending the power to all mayoral and established mayoral strategic authorities will bring consistency to the current landscape and ensure parity with local authorities, providing them with the same broad enabling power to do creative and innovative things in delivering for their communities. Foundation strategic authorities will also be permitted to exercise this general power of competence for the purpose of economic development and regeneration. This will ensure that areas can benefit from devolution. The Greater London Authority and the Mayor of London will not receive the general power of competence. Instead, they will continue to rely on the Greater London Authority Act 1999, which provides a similarly broad general power that has served successive mayors well. I commend the clause to the Committee.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  Will the shadow Minister give way?

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole for her amendment. I am not sure that, as drafted, it achieves the intended effect. The Bill already defines the meaning of a relevant local matter as one that occurs within the geographical boundary of a strategic authority and relates to one or more of the areas of competence set out in clause 2. The areas of competence are deliberately broad to allow for a wide range of activities to fall within scope. However, the amendment would remove the existing references to skills and employment support, economic development and regeneration, climate change, public service reform and public safety. That risks inadvertently constraining the matters on which a mayor may convene meetings with local partners. On the specific point about the dialogue needing to be two-way, I refer the hon. Member to the evidence we heard in the context of the Greater Manchester combined authority. Ultimately, for the mayor to have impact and traction, and to deliver, they must work with key partners, because ultimately those partners are the delivery arm of any strategic intent of the mayor. That requires two-way engagement and a two-way conversation. While we have not locked that in explicitly in the way that the hon. Member suggests in her amendment, that is fundamentally the principle that sits behind the way a mayor ought to work.

• 16 Oct 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I understand the hon. Member’s concern. The process is an iterative one. Strategic authorities do not operate in a vacuum. They are in constant conversation with the Government. We have set up the mayoral council as a way for us to have that conversation and dialogue. The fundamental role of national Government is to ensure that our mayors succeed. If issues arise in the way that we are seeing with existing mayoral authorities, there is a space for conversations and mechanisms for those issues to be resolved. I do not think we need an onerous legislative and regulatory procedure to resolve that. The amendment looks at the duty to convene the relevant partners. That matters where the mayor has a mandate to do something, but it requires them to bring lots of different partners around the table to deliver that. We are seeing mayors using their soft power. We have created an additional power to enable them to perform that vital function. Amendment agreed to . Amendment made: 85, in clause 21, page 24, line 18, at end insert— “(2A) In section 117 of LDEDCA 2009 (orders and regulations), in subsection (3)(a), after “order” insert “or regulations”.”— (Miatta Fahnbulleh.) This provides that any regulations made under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 that are not subject to the affirmative resolution procedure will be subject to the negative resolution procedure. This will include regulations under new section 103B (mayoral power to convene meetings with local partners), as inserted by Clause 21 of the Bill, and section 107N (public authorities: duty to have regard to shared local growth priorities), as inserted by Schedule 19 to the Bill

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is completely right—levelling up was a hollow slogan. We see from the record that there was no substance behind it. Unlike the Conservative party, we are doing the job of investing in our communities, putting them in the driving seat. That will be a game changer in constituencies such as my hon. Friend’s.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is completely right. What is game changing, in my view, is putting local people and communities in the driving seat and giving them powers to decide where they want to put the money. That will deliver impact, but critically it will also bring our communities together; it will bridge and create a sense of pride and a sense of community.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish to make a statement on the action we are taking to restore pride in place. Britain’s renewal is a driving mission of this Labour Government, and we know that that must be seen, felt and heard in every single neighbourhood. Our identity, sense of patriotism and feeling of belonging can all depend on the condition of our local area and the view from our doorstep. Our neighbourhoods are the nation’s barometer for whether all of us in this House are doing our jobs. Under 14 years of Conservative failure, the needle of that barometer has increasingly pointed in the wrong direction. The effect of this decline in pride in place has been corrosive. It has eroded people’s trust in politics and the state, created a sense of unfairness and that some places have fared better than others, and opened the door to the plastic patriots in the Reform party, who say that there is a simple answer. Let me say from the start that we are under no illusions about the complex causes of, and answers to, this decline. The failure of the Conservatives properly to fund local government, the sharp transition away from industry and the broken Tory promises of levelling up must shoulder part of the blame. We cannot and will not pretend that the legacies of any of those issues can be reversed overnight, but, as both a Labour Government and a Parliament, we can be confident that the way in which we restore pride in place lies not in this Chamber or the corridors of Whitehall; the answer is in the communities that we each represent. Our job is to give our constituents the investment and powers that they need, so that they can deliver the change they want to see in their communities. That is why we have announced the pride in place programme, backed up by £5 billion. This is a priority for the Prime Minister, choosing renewal over decline and unity over division. This is our plan for change in action, giving power and pride back to the people who make Britain great. There are two categories of investment. The first, the main programme, is the flagship pride in place programme, which will provide up to £20 million of funding and support to each area over the course of a decade, focused on specific neighbourhoods. Communities will need to decide how that funding is spent. We will establish a neighbourhood board in every place, made up of local people. Residents, business owners and community leaders will come together alongside their Member of Parliament to come up with a 10-year plan for this investment. They could choose to bring a derelict pub back into use for the community, transform a boarded-up shop into a wellbeing hub, improve local transport links, create a new playground or roll out a community-level service to help with the cost of living. Local people know best what change is needed. This programme is about local communities taking back control. As long as the plan provides value for money, the board will have our full support to deliver the change that the community needs. We are taking inspiration from the new deal for communities, which, under the last Labour Government, put local communities in charge of renewing their neighbourhoods, but we are also adapting to the world as we find it today and learning the lessons of what did and did not work from the last time around. The second programme, the pride in place impact fund, will provide a short-term injection of £1.5 million per place. It will be delivered by local authorities for the most immediate results in three phases: community spaces, public spaces and high streets and town centre revitalisation. Despite the shorter timeframe of the fund, there is still an important emphasis on local collaboration. We will ask local communities to work closely with MPs and local authorities to ensure that investment decisions reflect local priorities and community needs. Our economic situation means that we are not in a position to cover everywhere that would benefit from this programme. We have therefore prioritised places with the highest level of need—those places that have been left behind and let down, and those communities that were hollowed out over 14 years of Conservative austerity, for which the Conservatives should hang their heads in shame. It is important to this Labour Government that every community has the power to renew their area, so alongside this investment we have published the pride in place strategy. The purpose of the strategy is to promote the same principle of community power across the entire country, and it centres on three aims. The first aim, building stronger communities, means bringing people together. We see that as the foundation for a greater sense of belonging and local pride. When people spend time with each other in their community, including those from different backgrounds, they see that they have more in common than separates them. This sense of shared endeavour means that communities are more likely to take steps to improve their local area. As part of that, we will fund locally led interventions to build community resilience, encouraging volunteers through co-produced policies, and tackle loneliness. We recognise that that can be delivered only by a whole-of-Government approach, so this section of the strategy includes policies from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Home Office. The second aim, creating thriving places, is how we promote pride in place in the most direct sense: by improving how the public realm looks. As a Government, we see a direct link between the declining appearance of our local neighbourhoods and how people feel about not just their immediate area, but the country and the world around them. We acknowledge that the performance of the public realm is often a reflection of the economy and the work of local authorities, which is why we are focused on growth and on fixing the foundations of local government, but even in times when the economy has been strong and local government was funded properly, the effects have not always been felt in the public realm. Fixing that disconnect is the inspiration for policies to encourage the application of shopfront design guides as well as the use of clean-up powers. What links all the policies in this section of the paper is that they empower our communities to create thriving places. This is not an attempt to micromanage change from Whitehall. The final strand, helping communities to take back control of their own lives and areas, sets out our plan to give people a stronger voice in what matters to them. Each of us in the House will have spoken to constituents who talk of helplessness, when the place that they live in is changing in ways that they did not ask for and that they feel they have no control over. Sometimes it is about antisocial behaviour on their estate; other times, it is about the shops being lost from the high street. People want to be in control of their surroundings, but that is such a distant concept when they do not feel safe going out at night or do not have a say over how their town centre looks. A lot of those feelings stem from the effects of the Conservative Government’s 14 years of austerity, which took libraries and leisure centres from some of the most deprived and disadvantaged communities. When combined with the closure of pubs, sports clubs and social clubs, it means that for much of the country there are fewer and fewer places for people to come together and take pride in. We are therefore introducing a community right to buy, to give local residents new powers to save treasured assets; giving more people a say in their local economy by creating a new co-operative development unit in my Department; and requiring all authorities in England to establish effective neighbourhood governance. This Labour Government’s pride in place programme is an investment in the UK’s future, backing the true patriots who build up our communities across every corner of the country. Alongside our strategy, it aims to spark a new way of governing, where power and resources are more readily shared with our communities. However, like devolution, this needs to be the start of a process rather than a single event. We have specifically designed both investment programmes with a guaranteed role for local Members of Parliament, so I finish by encouraging Members from across the House to get involved. At a time when trust is low and the demand for change is high, this is an opportunity for all of us to make a real, tangible difference to our communities by giving real power to those we are elected to serve.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is completely right, and she put it incredibly eloquently. We can change the country by bringing our communities together and giving them the tools and agency to change their place so they have pride. Labour Members are on the side of unity, and of bringing communities together to drive renewal. I note that there are no Reform MPs here, but they are on the side of dividing, and of simple slogans and simple answers that—to be candid—will not change the lives of people in our communities.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right to point out the difference in approach—both in allocation and in the power that we are genuinely trying to give communities—between this Government and the last Government. We are very clear that communities are in the driving seat. The Conservative party pointed out that things were being made “complex”, but I do not think they are. We are creating a route that allows communities to be in the driving seat; we have designed the programme with that intent. We have community delivery units that will be working on the ground alongside Members of Parliament to make sure that communities are genuinely driving and shaping this, and that we can unlock the huge potential to change our places.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  Absolutely, 100%. Communities are in the driving seat, with the neighbourhood board of a cross-section of members of the community—people who have never sat around the table—being around the table and driving the change that they want to see.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  We are investing in rural communities, whether in Somerset or Wiltshire. We have used very clear metrics—we have used deprivation and the community needs index—to focus the programme on the areas that need it the most. We recognise that this is part of a bigger strategy, whether that is giving communities the power to reclaim their high streets, the investment we are trying to do through local government, or, critically, the job we are doing with our regional mayors to fundamentally drive economic prosperity. There is a bigger plan to invest in all parts of the country.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is completely right. This is a huge opportunity for our communities to get involved. As I have said, I think there is a powerful role that Members of Parliament can play in putting out the clarion call. I encourage anyone, particularly those who have felt politics and decisions about their lives to be remote, to become involved. This is their chance to get around the table, to shape their place and to make sure that they drive the change that they want to see.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is completely right. We want pace, we want momentum and we want to get on with investing in our communities. Our community delivery unit will be working really closely with communities. If places want to run, it is our job to work alongside them so that they can run.