Debate on the Address

I am grateful for that acceptance. We are not weakening our science base, and we will not weaken our veterinary base. Careers change and people come and go. That is quite normal. The noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, made it clear that lifestyles have to change and we need new carbon trading schemes. At actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index.html you can type in the number of rooms in your house or your car details and calculate your carbon emissions. I do not mean this in any personal way but if you tend to drive big cars, you have a massive carbon footprint, although I know the noble Lord probably drives a Mini. With all the talk about everyone changing their lifestyle, the Defra website allows you to check the impact of your own lifestyle. The noble Lord, Lord Mackie of Benshie, also raised the issues of food depending on fertilisers and of chemicals. He talked about the green belt. I hope that I have made the point that the green belt is a small part of the land. It is not national parkland or areas of outstanding natural beauty. It is quite separate. It is basically collars around urban areas. Mostly it is rubbish land. It is there to stop sprawl, but it is not sacrosanct. The urban side is only about 10 per cent. We are not short of land; it is what we do with it that matters. My noble friend Lady Jones of Whitchurch talked about quality of design. She said that she has visited BedZED, which I and my noble friend Lord Whitty have also done. The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and the RIBA are involved with the eco-standards design competition. We want to raise standards, as I think she said. She also made a point of supporting the noble Lord, Lord Best, on the private rented sector. The noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, raised the issue of household recycling, among other things. Household recycling has quadrupled in the past 10 years. There is sometimes confusion between our targets and the Kyoto targets, but we are committed to the UK renewables target of 2020. At the civic amenity site that I visited at the weekend at Wigmore, north of Cheltenham, 72 per cent of what goes in gets recycled or reused. It does not matter how it is reused; the point is that it has not gone into landfill. The noble Lord, Lord Livsey, raised issues relating to the crisis in the agriculture industry and food security. He would not expect me to say much more about foot and mouth because I think that I will be answering a Question from him at Question Time tomorrow and I do not want to prejudge it. My noble friend Lord Graham of Edmonton spoke from his own experience about the housing needs of the people of this country, including those who live in mobile homes, whom he has championed for a long time. I would do the two Front Benches a disservice if I commented on their contributions, because they were winding up the debate from their own perspectives. Therefore, I am about to sit down—as a note that I have just been given tells me to do—so that I can conform with the Chief Whip’s wish that we finish before 10 o’clock. It has been a useful debate. What is said is important because it is noted down by the various departments to be used in evidence later, so that we know where your Lordships are coming from when issues are raised, and Ministers can have a half-decent answer. Sometimes, as we all know, in this place, Bills get changed, don’t they?