First steps forward for political reform

During the election campaign much was said about how our political system was broken and needed mending.

On Monday the new government set out its first steps in an ambitious programme for political renewal, transferring power away from the executive to empower parliament, and away from parliament to empower people.

The Prime Minister is giving up his power to dissolve Parliament and giving this to Parliament. Legislation is being introduced for five year fixed parliamentary terms, so you can pencil in to your diary the date of the next General Election: 7th May 2015.

The number of MPs is to be reduced from 650 to 600, bringing our oversized House of Commons into line with legislatures across the world and cutting the cost of politics, saving £12m a year on pay, pensions and allowances alone.

The Boundary Commission will therefore redraw all constituency boundaries and will be given a new remit to establish more equally sized constituencies, with a 5% variation around an average constituency size of a 75,000 electorate. The objective is to ensure greater fairness with each individual's vote having more equal worth across the country.

The Ludlow constituency has an electorate of 68,000 and so will need to be enlarged in this process.

As part of the coalition agreement we also agreed to introduce a referendum on the Alternative Vote system for elections to the House of Commons. This referendum will be held on 5 May 2011, the same day as local and devolved assembly elections, which will save some £17m.

I doubt there is widespread appetite to change the voting system in this way, but accept that the opportunity to give the people a vote on the matter was an essential component of the agreement which allowed for change to a stable coalition government.

Further reforms will follow, but it is important to settle these issues swiftly so any changes can be in place for the next General Election.