The Queen gave her annual speech yesterday setting out the legislative agenda for the year ahead, marking the state opening of Parliament.

This year, the Queens speech (normally delivered in November) follows the General Election, which has created a new Parliament after newly elected members have been sworn in. Below are the key extracts from yesterday’s speech of interest to the BMC.

1. Public Bodies (Reform) Bill (England and Wales)
“The cost of bureaucracy and the number of public bodies will be reduced.”

General aims:
- improve transparency and accountability in public bodies
- empower Ministers to abolish or merge quangos, and to transfer their functions
- reduce the number of such bodies with an anticipated £1m annual saving to be achieved.
- cut the number of public bodies

Key aspects:
- The Bill would be matched with a review of public bodies and their functions every three years, as opposed to current practice of five yearly reviews.
- Public bodies will be assessed on whether they carry out a technical function, whether they need to be political impartial and if they have to undertake transparent verification of key facts.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/queens-speech/2010/05/queens-speech-public-bodies-reform-bill-50682

2. Decentralisation and Localism Bill (England & Wales)
“A Bill will be introduced to devolve greater powers to councils and neighbourhoods and give local communities control over housing and planning decisions.”

General aims:
- devolve more power to councils and local communities, especially around housing and planning decisions.
- create new powers to help save local facilities and services threatened with closure
- enable communities by giving them rights to take over local state-run services.
- empower residents to instigate referenda on local issues and veto excessive council tax increases
- greater financial autonomy given to local authorities
- launch of a review of the funding of local government.

Key aspects:
- Councils will be given a general power of competence.
- Local Enterprise Partnerships – joint local authority-business bodies - will be set up to replace Regional Development Agencies where these no longer exist.
- Public bodies will be required to publish online the job titles of every member of staff and the salaries and expenses of senior officials.
- Abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) and the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) – a more efficient and accountable system for fast-tracking major infrastructure projects will be created instead.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/queens-speech/2010/05/queens-speech-decentralisation-and-localism-bill-50673

3. Energy Security and Green Economy Bill
“Legislation will be introduced to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses, to promote low carbon energy production and to secure energy supplies.”

General aims:
- seek to improve energy efficiency and to encourage low-carbon energy production.
- set out how Britain's energy supplies will be made more secure

Key aspects:
- create a "Green Deal‟ for domestic and business energy users, allowing them to take out loans to improve energy efficiency in their home and pay these off from the savings that result
- create a “smart grid” and the rolling-out of smart meters across the country will also be part of this focus on greater efficiency
- reform energy markets, to secure supply and fair competition, involving changes to Ofgem's remit
- require energy companies to provide more information on energy bills for consumers, to ensure fair access to energy supplies
- carbon emissions from coal-fired power stations will be regulated through the emissions performance standard
- exploration of North Sea oil and gas fields, particularly those which are smaller and more difficult to reach, will be aided with vital infrastructure in the region being made available to all companies
- create a Green Investment Bank to support investment in low carbon projects

http://www.number10.gov.uk/queens-speech/2010/05/queens-speech-energy-security-and-green-economy-bill-50650

Other Items in the Queens speech

4. High Speed Rail
“My Government will.…enable the construction of a high-speed railway network.’’

General aims:
- A hybrid Bill to develop high speed rail plans.
- Construction of the network to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds is expected to begin by 2015 and to be completed by 2027.
- Stages two and three will see the network extended to the North East, Scotland and Wales.
- The Government would also consider options for linking the new network with the Channel Tunnel.
- A Future Transport Fund to encourage investment in rail and light rail. The fund would be drawn from charges placed on road freight on motorways and climate change levies on flights.

Also:
- Transport Secretary Phillip Hammond confirmed that he is considering charging lorries on a pay-as-you-drive basis and that he is committed to Crossrail.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/queens-speech/2010/05/queens-speech-high-speed-rail-50594

5. Climate Change
“My Government will seek effective global collaboration to sustain economic recovery and to combat climate change, including at the climate change conference in Mexico later this year.”

General aims
- Government is committed to tackling climate change both at home and abroad
- Push for the EU to demonstrate leadership in tackling international climate change, including by supporting an increase in the EU emission reduction target to 30 per cent by 2020.
- limit emissions and explore the creation of new international sources of funding for the purpose of climate change adaptation and mitigation.
- explore ways of helping the very poorest developing countries to take part in international climate change negotiations.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/queens-speech/2010/05/queens-speech-climate-change-50705

For a full transcript of the Queen's Speech see:
http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/topstorynews/2010/05/queens-speech-2010-3-50297

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