Sustainable Communities Bill

The hon. Lady may have noticed that I am a Conservative and I do not believe in revolution. My hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) once said that if it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change. That is a sentiment that I tend to endorse. I accept the point that the hon. Lady makes. The tension in the Bill is that we all want to see local authorities and local people being given a greater say in what goes on locally. That tension is partly illustrated by the points made by the hon. Member for Stourbridge (Lynda Waltho) when she asked about the safeguards if much more power were invested in local authorities. I would not like to see the new clause or the Bill being used by some overbearing local authorities to start empire-building and adding to their role. I would like to see power devolved from national Government to local government, from local authorities to parish councils, and perhaps also from local authorities to the voluntary sector and the charitable sector. I want to see power going one way—down, with no scope for power to go up. That is the thrust of what my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip-Northwood is trying to achieve in the Bill and why I welcome it so much. I would not like to see—the point that the hon. Member for Stourbridge was making—councils empire-building and taking on additional functions that could be done better at an even more local level. That was a fair point.