14 June 2002
Sir Robin Wales, Labour's newly elected mayor of Newham, will stay on as the ALG's chair despite the additional demands of his new post. Both decisions were revealed following the association's annual general meeting on June 11.
Some local government experts had expected Wales to stand down as chair following his successful campaign to become one of England's first directly elected mayors on May 2.
The Newham vote was held on the same day as London-wide elections that saw the Labour group's majority in the ALG reduced from 12 to two after 1,861 seats were contested across the capital's 32 boroughs. Representation in the influential cross-party association, which campaigns for additional resources for London, is split according to the political composition of the boroughs. Labour now has 17 representatives, while the Conservatives have ten and the Liberal Democrats have five.
A compromise decision was taken to divide representation of the six councils left with no overall control.
Labour will retain ALG responsibility for Waltham Forest and Harrow, while the Tories will oversee Havering and Hillingdon. The LibDems will represent Lambeth and Southwark.
The ALG has also published its submission to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on the revised formula for local authority grant distribution.
The association claimed that 'there is no compelling evidence' that the current profile of distribution is unfair – and dismissed claims by the northern metropolitan authorities that London receives an unfairly large slice of the local government funding cake through the current Area Cost Adjustment.
A spokesman for the association said: 'Methodology changes have cost London dear in the past. London authorities believe that they are not sufficiently compensated for key expenditure pressures that are specific to the capital.'
The new formula will be announced by the ODPM later this year.
PFjun2002
