Abolish Government Office for London, demands City Hall
THE Government Office for London should be abolished, the London Assembly urged today. It is an unnecessary bureaucracy costing taxpayers �15 million a year and is unaccountable, say Assembly members
THE Government Office for London should be abolished, the London Assembly urged today.
It is an unnecessary bureaucracy costing taxpayers �15 million a year and is unaccountable, say Assembly members.
The department should be replaced with a streamlined operation, along the lines of the Scottish Office and Welsh Office, which would act as a conduit between London’s directly-elected assembly and Whitehall departments.
Assembly member Darren Johnson, who proposed today’s motion calling for its abolition, said: “The Chancellor is scouring government spending for opportunities to halve the national deficit. Cutting the Government Office for London would be a good place to start.
“The establishment of democratic London-wide government in 2000 should have sounded its death knell.
“It is now long past time this bureaucratic dinosaur was abolished.”
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The Government Office for London was set up to fill a gap when the Thatcher Government abolished the Greater London Council in 1986. But it has continued running years after the London Assembly was established.
Assembly member Mike Tuffrey said: “There can be no justification for retaining this superfluous bureaucracy when budgets for services like police and transport are under severe pressure.”
The Assembly today calls on the Government to take steps to abolish it to avoid duplication, save money and improve accountability, agreed by 11 votes in favour at today’s meeting, which can be viewed on webcast.
