Sustainable Communities Bill

The point that my hon. Friend makes about the cohesion of communities is a strong and powerful example of the paradoxes that can emerge from localism. I hope that he realises that, given my experience of the Cantle report and the Ritchie report on local communities, I understand very well the point that he makes. The Bill that we will debate on Monday deals with safeguards against such difficulties and the boundaries of localism. [Interruption.] Well, I cannot speak for the authors of the Bill before us, but this is a matter for legitimate debate. It may be helpful if I lay out how the Bill’s drafting may produce some unintended consequences. The point has already been made about the definition of sustainability, but the definition of valid measures requires further clarification. I have already mentioned the difficulty about how control of the financing would work or how the measures would fit with the local council tax system. For example, if priorities are not being addressed, would there be an ability to raise local precepts? The right hon. Member for West Dorset said that he was in favour of a power to enable the creation of parishes, but other Opposition Front Benchers spend much of their time putting out press stories claiming that council taxes are going up because we are creating parishes. There is a valid point in that, because parishes do raise precepts, but if the right hon. Gentleman thinks that there should be a power to create parishes, I wonder what his policy is towards such raising of precepts through local taxation.