Sustainable Communities Bill

I will speak briefly because I am conscious of the presence of my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore), who has silently overshadowed my considerations in the past few weeks. I am aware of his capacity for examining Bills in detail and I do not want to eat into his time. I have already congratulated and thanked people involved in the Bill and, like the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Mr. Letwin), I do not wish to spend too much time on repeating that. However, I particularly want to mention my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Lyn Brown). When my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State put this Bill into my in-tray, my inclination was to stitch together a deal. My hon. Friend has embroidered a deal and created a Bill that is workable, makes sense and meets the policy intentions of its sponsors. I am also grateful to the right hon. Member for West Dorset. It is significant that he is at the Dispatch Box, because he is responsible for policy development. As politicians, we are moving firmly into a world where localism is one of the key points in public debate. That has not always been the case but, as I said at the Local Government Association meeting, Ministers and shadow Ministers now line up to prove their localist agendas. My difficulty is to ensure that we move together in consensus, particularly with the LGA, while at the same time maintaining a political advantage over the right hon. Gentleman, which is very difficult because of his intelligence and articulacy. Before the Bill went into Committee, I did some research and read David Butler’s excellent book, ““Failure in British Government: The Politics of the Poll Tax””. The hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) said that things go disastrously wrong when there is consensus, but they can also go disastrously wrong when there is not consensus. The book gives an account of the celebratory party at the house of the then Local Government Minister, William Waldegrave, present at which was the young No. 10 policy adviser, a certain Mr. Oliver Letwin. I say that to tease him, but I acknowledge the thought that he has given to policy development in this area and the assistance that he has given to the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd). Let me finally thank one other one other person—my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister. He was the author of the policy idea—ridiculed when it was first proposed—of sustainability for our communities. That phrase was part of the departmental logo for many years. I know that we all wish him a speedy recovery. It is right that the Bill has had a long gestation period. I acknowledge the work of the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy), and Sue Doughty before her, and of other Members, including my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew). In the past 40 years, three Members have passed private Members’ Bills of significant substance through this House. The first was Sidney Silverman, whose Bill led to the abolition of capital punishment in this country, and the second was the right hon. David Steel, whose Bill led to this country’s abortion laws. Many other Members have got private Members’ Bills through—indeed, I got one through in 1997. It took me about 10 minutes because it was a handout Bill and nobody noticed it. The hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood has had to spend months getting his Bill through. I genuinely believe that the Bill will change the relationships in British politics. I do not think that it will achieve everything that the promoter and sponsors claim for it, but it will change the relationships. Although it will not grab the headlines as much as Sidney Silverman’s Bill or David Steel’s, it will contribute enormously to British politics, and I am proud to be the Minister who helped it through Parliament. Question put and agreed to. Bill accordingly read the Third time, and passed.