12 November 2004
The speeches, rallies and debates are over. Months of speculation have come to an end. There were shouts of jubilation and tears of despondency, but the people have spoken: there is to be no elected regional assembly in the Northeast.
While the eyes of the world were trained on Washington DC, over in Washington, County Durham, the referendum went ahead quietly. No recounts were necessary: the idea of democratic regional government was decisively rejected by a ratio of more than three to one.
The scale of the defeat took many by surprise. A total of 696,519 people voted against the assembly, while just 197,310 were in favour.
John Prescott is a disappointed man. Elected regional government was very much a personal enthusiasm and the deputy prime minister received little visible support from his Cabinet colleagues. The tabloids scented blood and laid into him with gusto.
The government has no choice but to acquiesce to the popular vote. 'Throughout the referendum, the government made it absolutely clear that the decision whether to have elected regional government rests with the people. It is their choice and their say,' Prescott says.
Local government minister Nick Raynsford valiantly pointed to Wales – where devolution was rejected initially, only to be accepted some 20 years later – but ministers concede that it is an experiment not worth repeating. The Regional Assemblies Bill will not now be published, effectively scrapping the delayed referendums for the Northwest, and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Despite the outcome, the deputy prime minister has restated his opinion that an elected regional assembly would be in the Northeast's best interests. 'That [view] has not changed,' he says.
Prescott has at least been able to take some comfort from the relatively healthy turnout rate of 48%, which suggests democracy is alive and well in the Northeast.
Indeed, Mark Sandford, a research fellow at the Constitution Unit, a think-tank focused on constitutional reform, suggests the turnout is evidence that voters were prepared to engage seriously with the idea of a regional Parliament. While some may ascribe the rejection to public disenchantment with politicians and the effectiveness or otherwise of local democracy, Sandford says it is more likely to be a reflection of concerns about its limited powers.
'We've had five years of polls saying people wanted an assembly,' he says. 'Given the good turnout, I'm inclined to think it was an informed decision.'
However, for the moment, elected regional government has been dropped from the agenda. 'It will get quietly buried under next year's general election campaign,' says Sandford.
He is at pains, though, to point out that the case for such government and the movement of power from the centre to regional bodies are not directly linked. A kind of 'creeping regionalisation' will continue, he predicts.
'The wide range of regional institutions of government is still in existence, and it's likely that the existing North East Assembly, the Government Office for the Region, [the regional development agency] One North East and their ilk will continue to lead regional policy for some time. Rumours of the death of regional government are somewhat exaggerated,' he says.
Dan Corry, director of the New Local Government Network, is concerned, however, about the 'gaping democratic deficit' left by the rejection of the assembly. 'Given that the existing indirectly elected regional assemblies are the only show in town, the government now needs to take much more seriously their role and see how they can be made more effective,' he says.
A vote in favour of the assembly would have been accompanied by reorganisation in County Durham and Northumberland, with county and district councils merged into single-tier authorities. Now these plans have also been shelved.
Questions over the future shape of local government remain, though. 'Many in government are still convinced that unitaries make much more sense to the public and deliver better public services,' Corry notes. 'Is the government going to abandon this agenda or not? Local authorities will want to know.'
Prescott says no, but with delivery at the top of the agenda, maybe this debate is not over yet.
PFnov2004
