Sustainable Communities Bill

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman. He is right and that is an important point. Under my measures, the codification of the process that the Bill provides for has the advantage of allowing proposals to come forward that are based not simply on the local spending report—important though that is—but on other considerations, an example being a local organisation that is failing to meet the agreed objectives within its area. I did not respond in detail to the hon. Member for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone), but he has given us a very good example of how that process could be used. One of my frustrations is that it is often forgotten that a police authority is of course itself a local authority under law, and is itself accountable to local councillors. Somewhere along the line, some local councillors have forgotten that point, although I am not suggesting that the hon. Gentleman’s have. This is not Government policy—yet—but my personal view is that the link between police authorities and the executive leadership of councils needs to be strengthened, partly to meet those points. A very important benefit of the Bill is that if the hon. Gentleman’s local police authority were aware, as it will be, that the local council had powers to make such proposals to change function, I suspect that it would come quickly to the table to discuss a way forward. That would be especially true if it was clear through the representations of the Member of Parliament, as it would be in this case, and of the local authority—in the traditional, perhaps informal manner—that the Secretary of State was minded to agree, which, on many such occasions, I imagine they would be. In other words, the very existence of this process, combined with the other measures, will bring better co-operation locally and act as an incentive. However, if the hon. Gentleman drops me a line, I shall certainly try to help him to sort out the parking in Kettering, for example. Of course, we did devolve these powers.