Housing and Regeneration Bill

I beg to differ. The noble Lord’s own party put this in place when it passed the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. I am sure regeneration issues were in the minds of the legislators at the time because it governed the relationship between the Urban Regeneration Agency—English Partnerships—and statutory undertakers. So I think the legislation is in the right place. I made the point that this was about ensuring that a solution is found where there are difficulties and a situation is not able to be resolved as one would expect. As we all know, during planning arrangements at a local level you expect the developer and the owner of the land to sensibly sit round a table and resolve these matters. But sometimes that is not possible, and this part of the Bill provides an element of certainty that the parties can make representations to the Secretary of State to modify the functions of a statutory undertaker so as to secure the provision of services, or to extend existing services, in relation to land. That is what the legislation is designed to do. The fact that it is not much used does not necessarily detract from its value because, as I said, it puts the onus on the statutory undertaker and developer to come to an agreement or a reasonable arrangement so that these essential services can be put in place.