Housing and Regeneration Bill

I am delighted to accept what the Minister said on my Amendment No. 73G and hope that he agrees that I moved it in the spirit of trying to make some progress on the Bill, although we have one or two meatier amendments to come. Like everyone else, I was intrigued to hear what the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, said about elected regional authorities. I am a passionate believer in regional government in England with a great deal of devolution from this place and the centre generally. I think that that is still the policy of my party, although the whole thing is a bit on the back burner now. I look forward to debates on the subject. I am in some difficulty about whether we can accept the government amendment today, because I am speaking on behalf of my noble friend Lady Hamwee, who is detained at some conference that she is chairing. She will be along later and apologises for not being here. It is her suggestion that, were the amendment to be carried, debate on some planning aspects of the Bill on Report or at Third Reading would be pre-empted and we might be in some difficulty. On that basis, she asked me to indicate that we did not support it today. However, perhaps I can have a clear assurance that there would be no pre-emption of any debate at all on the planning aspects of the Bill, other than the details of this provision. I think she is worried that if Amendment No. 74 were passed today, it might pre-empt discussion on amendments on Report to take out the whole question of the HCA taking over from a local authority in an area as the planning authority, if there were any. If I have an absolute assurance that that is not the case, I will proceed on that basis.