Housing and Regeneration Bill

That was a very good debate and I thank those who have supported the amendment. I was very interested in the idea of the noble Lord, Lord Best, about rural housing enablers. That is an excellent idea that the Government could take on board and think about. The noble Lord mentioned consulting parishioners and the difficulty he had had in one area in Dorset. The parish council is probably quite receptive to his idea, but when you get to local people, they are all right, Jack, because they already have a house, so they are probably less receptive to the idea of more housing in their rather quaint village. It is very difficult to get across to them that, although they might be okay, there are other people who need housing. The amendment does not ask for special treatment for rural areas, as I emphasised when I started the debate. We are asking that rural areas receive their fair share of attention. I am sorry that the Minister did not like the amendment, or thought it unnecessary, and did not like the reference to taking ““particular”” account. I offered that if he did not like our amendment, he could come back with a better one that might give attention to urban and rural areas so that the word ““rural”” is included in the Bill. The Affordable Rural Housing Commission report was published five years ago and we are still concerned about rural areas. It is all very well saying how concerned we are, but we actually need to get something done. We think that something like this amendment would bring the issue to the attention of the HCA so that rural areas are not forgotten. I am disappointed by the Minister’s reaction to that. The Minister did not explain how the Government propose to tackle the problems in rural areas. What is going to happen in rural areas? At the moment, very little is happening. They have a long way to go to catch up with urban areas to redress the balance. It is all very well saying that the funding is getting better now, but there is a long way to go to redress the balance. That was slightly disappointing. Unless the Minister would like to come back with a better amendment, in his view, at this stage I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 28 to 32 not moved.] [Amendments Nos. 33 and 34 had been withdrawn from the Marshalled List.]