Housing and Regeneration Bill

I am suggesting that 1993 was a roll-forward from previous legislation. If I am wrong about that, I would be delighted to know. I suspect that this legislation goes right back to the 1940s and 1950s. That is my guess. Now the statutory undertakers are almost all private companies. Why should a private company that happens to supply water, electricity or gas—and there might be several of them in an area competing with each other—be in a privileged position, in the words of the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, compared with other private companies? For example—and I am sorry to talk about where I live—Tesco is trying to get planning permission for a new supermarket in Colne, where I live. Without discussing that application, which we will have to resolve and determine tomorrow night, one of the things Tesco has problems with is that it does not own the land. The land is in several different parcels, and Tesco has requested the local authority to compulsorily purchase that land. That is the way a private company goes about trying to assemble land that it cannot assemble; it tries to persuade the local authority that it is a good idea and that authority will then compulsorily purchase it. Why is it necessary to give compulsory purchase powers to private companies just because they happen to be providing people with electricity or with a tramway? Why can the compulsory purchase not be done in the normal way by a public authority, at whatever level? That is the fundamental question that lies beneath this. I look forward to the correspondence.