Raynsford: London needs a voice

Londoners to be Consulted on New Authority

He told the Commons a Green Paper would be published in July outlining Labour's proposals. Individuals and organisations would be able to comment before a citywide referendum on the plans is held next May.

Legislation could be introduced to create the authority in the next session of parliament, although the first elections are unlikely to be held before 2000.

Opening a debate on the issue, Mr Raynsford attacked the Conservatives' "spiteful, short-sighted and anti-democratic decision" to scrap the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1986. He said the capital had been left "rudderless and without a voice for 11 long years." It was the only Western capital without an elected city government, he added.

But he insisted the proposed body would not be a "new GLC". Instead it would be "a totally new style of strategic authority, drawing on the lessons of the past from this country and overseas."

The Environment Secretary in the previous Tory government, John Gummer, said that abolition of the old GLC had been widely supported in London. "It was so expensive that Mr Raynsford doesn't want to put it back in again," he said.

John Gummer in the Commons

Mr Gummer argued that London was the second most successful city in the world after New York and had achieved that success without having a strategic authority or an elected major.

He described Mr Raynsford's plans as "nonsense" and said Labour were trying to find a solution to something which was not a problem.

Mr Gummer said the authority would turn a "successful, less over-governed capital" into a "less successful, more over-governed capital". He said: "It will increase the cost of London, decrease the attractiveness of London and drive people away rather than bring them in."

The last leader of the GLC, Labour's Ken Livingstone, said he agreed with much of what the Government planned but there were a number of small weaknesses.

He stressed however that it would be surprising if there were no weak points at this early stage.

Ken Livingstone

Mr Livingstone (Brent E) said he wanted to see the authority have some revenue-raising powers.

"The Treasury has also feared London having any financial independence whatsoever," he said.

Mr Livingstone cautioned against having a figurehead mayor distanced from party politics.

He said there was a degree of "Americanisation" about and warned that American mayors were often the focus for corruption because all contracts and decisions went through them.