Sustainable Communities Bill

Let me start with the traditional, but nevertheless sincere, congratulations to the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) on securing top place in the ballot—something that I never got anywhere near; perhaps I will in the future, as who knows what that holds—and on choosing this subject for his Bill. He has brought together a coalition around an issue that is touching a lot of nerves—not only in the House but in the country at large. The fact that we were able to keep the Chancellor waiting on the line this morning while the BBC interviewed us about the Bill may not have been a career-enhancing move for me—even less so now that I have said it—but it reflected the degree of interest in the hon. Gentleman’s Bill, so I congratulate him again. This week’s Local Government Chronicle also reports on the consensus that the Bill has generated across councils and parties. The all-party Local Government Association’s welcome for the Government’s own Local Government Bill shows that the two Bills are moving in the same direction. I am therefore placed in a somewhat difficult situation in respect of complying with your strictures, Mr. Deputy Speaker, about focusing today’s debate on the Sustainable Communities Bill when it may be helpful to the House if I referred at times to the Local Government Bill. I suppose I am asking for your indulgence in that respect, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Indeed, our debate today is one side of the coin. On Monday, we have the Second Reading of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill, when further debate on this subject will take place. Serious commentators accept that the Government are devolving power to local government and locally elected councillors over not only their institutions and budgets but the objectives of the partner organisations, many of which are Departments working through our local offices. It is also widely accepted that we believe that devolution, which builds on the measures that we have already introduced—we heard a strong contribution about the impact of that on Wales—should be increased. We want to devolve power beyond the local authority to neighbourhoods and parishes. The right hon. Member for West Dorset (Mr. Letwin) acknowledged that and I support his remarks. Our plans have been dubbed ““double devolution””, although I am not sure whether the good people of Oldham and Saddleworth quite grasp what that means.