Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment No. 99 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, who moved it in her customary, short and articulate way. The debate then took another course. It was important that the strong expressions of opinion about the issue were heard, even though it is clearly outside the scope of what we are discussing under the amendment. I am not in a position to be able to answer in an adequate way on the issue. I promise to make sure that my honourable friend Jim Knight, the Minister responsible for rural housing in Defra, has his attention directed to tonight’s Hansard and what has been said tonight in Parliament. I am sure that he is aware of the matter, and I shall speak to him about it myself. I thank noble Lords who have dealt with it. The advice that I have received is that the CRC could not stop the situation because it is a housing regulatory matter. However, I confirm that it is exactly the kind of issue that the CRC might in future pursue with the ODPM as a rural-proofing matter, as the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, said. I hope that noble Lords who have spoken with such feeling about it will excuse me if I say no more about it tonight. I shall return to the amendment. The noble Baroness will know that, from April last year, regional development agencies’ activities have been driven by what is described as a new tasking framework. That framework requires each RDA to show, in its corporate plan, how it will address the priorities identified in the regional economic strategy for the region, and contribute to delivery of four overarching government PSA targets. One of those overarching targets is sustainable development, a target that we in Defra hold on behalf of government. RDAs welcomed the introduction of the strengthened remit for sustainable development and, through their six-monthly reports to Ministers, will provide a summary of how they are contributing to delivery of sustainable development in their regions. That new requirement will be an effective method of ensuring that RDAs not only undertake their activities in a sustainable manner, but contribute to sustainable development in their regions. RDAs are aware of their role in that; I was pleased to hear that Sir Martin Doughty thought that there was genuine interest from the RDAs in that area. In addition to funding sustainable development projects, many RDAs have established environmental management systems, sustainable transport plans and project appraisal tools that help to mitigate the environmental impacts of their operations and activities. Although RDAs are already making a significant contribution to the delivery of sustainable development, the steps that the Government have taken to strengthen the framework in which RDAs operate should improve their effectiveness in delivering sustainable developments in the region. Guidance to the RDAs on producing regional economic strategies was reviewed last year to ensure that they and the actions to implement them are based on sustainable development principles, set out in our 2005 national sustainable development strategy. I hope that the noble Lady is reassured to some extent, both by what I have had to say and by the meeting she attended earlier this week. Ministers will be looking very closely indeed to make sure that RDAs with any responsibilities carry them out in the manner that Parliament expects.