Housing and Regeneration Bill

I am sorry that I did not address that point. There will be an amendment later on under which we will be able to explore it, but I am not in favour of a single champion for rural areas. I would hope that the board will achieve that by having a genuine mix of experience, so rural areas will not need a separate champion because they will be championed by the board. The noble Earl is quite right—there are very different issues and challenges in those areas, but some of them are not that different now. One could take market towns, for example, and some of the other issues that we are looking at with regard to urban extensions. The rural areas must be spoken up for and their interests promoted, but that must be seen as seamless with the work of the HCA.