Communities and Local Government/Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

I cannot comment on the specific case, but it gives me an opportunity to make clear how strongly my party is committed to regeneration. Members expressed scepticism when I said where I would like to see the many new homes that we want to be built. I have described to the House at length the scope that I envisage for regeneration of the near-city zone around the central business districts of many of Britain’s towns and cities, and the opportunity that that presents for the provision of affordable near-city living. No one could argue that there are no problems with the planning system, but the proposals that we have seen so far focus on raising money for the Treasury rather than ensuring that more of the right homes are built in the right places. That is because there has been no mention of giving people more say in the kind of development that takes place in their neighbourhoods. Localism goes out of the back door when the Treasury comes in at the front. That is the tragedy of this Queen's Speech. Despite calls from all parts of the House for more localism, there is virtually nothing in the proposed Bills to deliver it. If the Government were serious about localism, they would abolish unelected regional assemblies as we have pledged to. Any talk of localism from the Government will mean very little until those unelected regional assemblies—the costly and unaccountable brainchild of the Deputy Prime Minister—are scrapped. They are unpopular and anti-democratic, and for as long as they remain in place, people will know that when it comes to localism, the Government are all talk. Similarly, if the Government were serious about reinvigorating local democracy, they would abolish the Standards Board, as we have pledged to. If they really want to be radical and devolutionary, the Government should take on board the ideas set out in our document ““The Permissive State””. It proposes both total transparency in regard to the amount of central Government spending in local areas, and much more discretion for councils when it comes to how the money is used. Therein lies the difference. Conservative Members have come up with a genuinely localist idea for how to achieve a real step change in where decisions are made. We have literally put our money where our mouth is, whereas in the Queen's Speech the Government merely pay lip service to localism. The planning legislation looks like a sell-out to the Treasury, the Greater London authority Bill looks like a sop to the Mayor, and the local government Bill looks like a watered-down compromise between the Prime Minister, the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Deputy Prime Minister. This is the Queen's Speech of an interregnum. It is clearer than ever that the only way in which to deliver real change in local government is to start with one major change in the government of our nation.