Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

My Lords, I support as strongly as I can what the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, has been saying. I had intended to raise the matter under Amendment No. 102, in the name of my noble friend Lord Cameron of Dillington, but, as we seem to have got there already, I may as well say something now. I hope that the 100 per cent enfranchisement or purchase right is not in the Government’s mind because, if it happens, it will have the effect of completely abolishing a certain amount of affordable rural housing that exists now. What is even worse, perhaps, it will dry up the supply of new sites on which such affordable housing can be built. Those who own such sites will have no confidence in the system. That will be a serious matter in a large number of villages when there is at present a degree of hope that rural people on less than average incomes will be able to get a house in the locality that they come from or where they have a job and want to be. I hope that the Government take the matter extremely seriously.