Housing and Regeneration Bill

My Amendment No. 70 is in this group. I shall come to it when I have risen to the fly so deftly flicked over my nose by the noble Baroness, who wondered why we were being fairly gentle with this part of the Bill. I should not have to remind the Committee that we spent an hour on the subject by way of an amendment right at the beginning of the Bill, where we tried to persuade the Government to insert at the beginning of Clause 2: "““Working through the planning system and in partnership with local government and the other agencies already involved””." If that were included, much of the concern about this section would diminish, and I still think that that is an appropriate way to deal with the matter. I turn to my Amendment No. 70, which, as the noble Baroness said, is quite gentle. If the Bill were in the form that I would like it to be in, this issue would not cause so much concern. This is a probing amendment, so what I say will go slightly wider than the subject of the amendment. It deals with Clause 13(5), which states that: "““The Secretary of State must, before making a designation order, consult … every local authority any part of whose area is intended to be included in the proposed designated area””." That is absolutely straightforward, but then, in what I consider to be peculiar wording, it goes on to say, "““any person, other than a local authority, who is the local planning authority for the proposed designated area or any part of””." For the life of me, I cannot make sense of that bit of English. I am not aware that any person can be a planning authority but that seems to be implied by the way in which that paragraph is written. That little bit of flawed English language is quite important. I think that the paragraph should say, ““any person other than the local authority who has an objection to the proposal””. The real purpose of my amendment is to ensure that, having consulted these people, the Secretary of State is obliged to publish the conclusions that he or she has come to as a result of the consultation. That may be intended but it is not written in the Bill. I agree with what the noble Baroness said about the powers that are there, but my experience—although experience may not be the right word—goes back to the London Docklands Development Corporation, which I have already mentioned. There were five separate local authorities and wonderful people were involved but they were not prepared to co-operate and work together. Something had to be done because nothing was happening, and therefore the right conclusion was made. With the greatest deference to the noble Baroness, Lady Ford, I think that Milton Keynes is a slightly different example. Once the principle of a new town was accepted, there was a large degree of agreement, and the co-operative working which went on there achieved a very successful—““miraculous”” may be going too far—operation. [The Committee was suspended for a Division in the House from 6.12 to 6.22 pm.]