Prescott steps up devolution debate

Decisive weekend for the Labour Party as local government and youth con ferences put the leader's plans for modernisation to the test

Labour is determined to implement regional government in Britain to give power back to the people, John Prescott, Labour's deputy leader, said yesterday.

"People rightly want more control over their affairs," he told the opening session of the party's local government conference in Brighton, "and under Labour that is what they will get: devolution, decentralisation and regional government".

Mr Prescott's line appeared to harden up the party's commitment to regional authorities after an apparent tempering of Labour's enthusiasm for the idea by Tony Blair last month. Mr Blair, in a New Year press conference, said Labour's proposals for regional devolution in England "depend on the support being there". If people wanted greater devolution of power "then we will accede to that. If you look at what is happening industrially and economically, in certain parts of the country there is a very strong desire for this".

This month's document on local democracy stated that Labour believes "we should provide for an elected authority for each English region"

and a commission under Jack Straw, Labour's home affairs spokesman, is currently working on details and the pace of change.

Labour officials yesterday were swift to insist that Mr Prescott's words represented no change in Labour's stance which could start with non-statutory regional forums composed of elected local councillors who would oversee appointments to quangos, makingsure they were democratically accountable. Consultation would follow on how far and how fast individual regions wanted to move beyond that to directly elected authorities.

Accusing the Conservatives of being "absurd" in stating that "any change in the way we run the country will lead to the break up of Britain", Mr Prescott said that "regional government is not a revolutionary idea". Britain was the only major EU country without a regional tier and elsewhere in Europe regional government had successfully aided economic development and prosperity.

"In the 1990s, accountable regional government is an idea that is practical and necessary. And one which Labour is determined to implement," Mr Prescott said.

Decisions about economic development and priorities were already taken by civil servants in integrated regional offices but they were accountable only to central government. Instead, he said, "they should be democratically accountable to the regions". Each region required an equivalent of the Scottish Development Agency to co-ordinate investment and development, he said, and that idea and others was being discussed by Labour's regional government commission, which is expected to report in the summer.

While Labour's policy will only be firmed up later this year, the thrust of Labour's thinking is that powers should be devolved from Whitehall to regional authorities rather than transferred up from local government. Options under study for what would bestrategic rather than service delivery authorities include some oversight of health developments in their regions, and a role in monitoring the activities of privatised water and electricity companies. A key function, however, is expected to be to provide the regional voice which England lacks in Europe, leading to charges that Britain has lost out over European regional development funds. That has already led groups of local authorities to band together informally to establish a presence in Brussels.