Sustainable Communities Bill

I think that the main reason why I was chosen to sit on the Committee was because I have a beard. Speaking as someone who is not in any way a usual suspect—I am just a normal activist—I consider the Bill to be extremely welcome. I congratulate the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) on getting it through the House. Perhaps he could inform the House why it is that new Members come up high in the private Member’s Bill ballot and old lags like me never come anywhere in it. A Privy Council inquiry should be held into why bearded Members do not get high places in the private Member’s Bill ballot. [Laughter.] It is a serious point; there is evidence to prove it. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) because he has done a fantastic job in supporting the Bill and has campaigned for many years on the issue of local sustainable communities. I also thank the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) for the work that she has done. It is a useful piece of legislation, and as my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud pointed out, the best legislation does not start in the unseen reaches of the civil service; it starts outside in campaigns to improve community life around the country, and that is where the Bill comes from. I think back to a public meeting that we held in support of the Bill three years ago in Archway in my constituency. I was invited to come and speak at it, and I thought, ““A public meeting on sustainable communities—how many people will be there?”” but 350 people turned up. That is absolutely amazing. It was not that they necessarily wanted to talk about the details of a Bill; they wanted to find out why they had so little power over the future of local shops, particularly those around Junction road, over the future of big planning decisions that would affect them, and over housing developments, given that we desperately need social housing.