It is a nationally administered government organisation with a strong local and regional presence, but there is no local and regional influence on its activities. What central government should be doing is providing a stable framework of regulation, standards and support. Those standards, set down by central government, are essential to avoid social exclusion. The support should be in the form of intervention which does not discriminate between specific businesses but which helps all businesses to meet those standards and objectives. At this late hour, noble Lords will be pleased that the point I now wish to make is simple and obvious.
Centralised government is a drag on the economy.
Our competitiveness as a nation is the sum of its parts. The Government's proposed cure is to apply more of the same medicine yet more vigorously. My proposal is to change the medicine to more democratic regional government and bring government closer to the people. I have no doubt that there are many reasons, but I suggest that a major one is their obsession with constitutional reform. I recollect that the Wilson Government of the late 1960s came very badly unstuck over the reform of the House of Lords, despite having a majority of over a hundred.