Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

moved Amendment No. 99:"After Clause 16, insert the following new clause—" ““SUSTAINABILITY DUTY FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES (1)   The Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 (c. 45) shall be amended as follows. (2)   In section 4 (purposes)— (a)   in subsection (1)(a), after ““further the”” insert ““sustainable””; (b)   in subsection (1)(e), omit ““where it is relevant to do so””.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, with this amendment we return to the issue of whether the agencies established by the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 should have had sustainable economic development as a core purpose. My amendment suggests that the Act should say that one purpose of an agency is to further the sustainable,"““economic development and the regeneration of its area””," and should not include the words,"““where it is relevant to do so””." In Committee, we also discussed the issue of rural areas and whether regional development agencies had enough duties. When I looked again at the 1998 Act, I was satisfied that its wording on rural areas was satisfactory. It says:"““A regional development agency’s purposes apply as much in relation to the rural parts of its area as in relation to the non-rural parts of its area””." If there is still a difficulty over subsection (2) regarding its purposes, it is indeed for government—particularly for Defra—to ensure that the RDAs take their duties with regard to rural areas equally seriously. The 1998 Act does not need amending in that regard. I return to the sustainability issue. The noble Lord, Lord Bach, has said that,"““over a number of years a lot of effort has gone into ensuring that sustainability plays an increased part in the RDAs’ role””.—[Official Report, 28/2/06; col. 243.]" If that duty were actually enshrined in statute—ensuring that sustainability played a part—would less effort have gone in? The agencies would understand more fully that it had to play a part. However, there is some good news for the Minister, in that Sir Martin Doughty was speaking at an event in your Lordships’ House today on biospheres. In passing and with no reference to this amendment he said how cheered he was by the recent change in attitude that he sensed among regional development agencies. He had had a meeting last week with the chairs of all those agencies and now felt that there was a much greater understanding of the need for sustainability. I had not prompted that discussion nor made my feelings known to him, so I felt that his was a helpful comment to come out of the blue. I accept that Defra is not in the lead on this and that the DTI is still the department in charge of regional development agencies. Thus I hope that the DTI, when looking at this short debate, will realise that we will not take our eye off the ball. We will continue to look at whether regional development agencies are acting in the interests of sustainability. In Committee I reported on the comments made by bodies such as Sustainability South West, giving many reasons why the regional economic strategy at the moment did not measure up in sustainability terms. I hope that regional development agencies, and whoever is assessing sustainability issues in each region, will take those comments on board and try to improve their performance. Sir Martin indicated this morning that they had tried to make a good first step, and I believe that they need to be further encouraged down that road. I beg to move.