Housing and Regeneration Bill

I speak on behalf of my noble friend Lady Hamwee. She is not in her place because she has not yet returned from a conference. The reason for my opposition to the clause standing part of the Bill is to enable me to question whether it is appropriate for specified amounts of money to appear in primary legislation rather than in secondary legislation, as it states in Clause 26(2) that: "““The Secretary of State may by order amend subsection (1) so as to specify a greater amount than that for the time being specified there””." The limit can be increased to £3,000 million. Nowadays people refer to that as £3 billion. I am not sure that it should be, but that is being old fashioned. Is it appropriate for specified amounts to appear in primary legislation that may last for considerable time, during which inflation may occur? People try to keep inflation down to what is thought to be a reasonable level but some of us can remember when it was over 20 per cent. I am not suggesting it will get back to that level but many people feel that it may run at 4 or 5 per cent for a while. You would soon run away with large amounts of money if inflation stayed at that level for a number of years. That is the basic question. A subsidiary question is to probe how £3,000 million, or £3 billion, compares with the current borrowing levels of the component organisations of the HCA. It will be interesting to know the amounts if the Minister can give them. Finally—this is a more trivial probing—it is not clear how subsections (1), (2) and (3) relate to each other and why they are necessary. Why cannot the Secretary of State simply have the power to make an order stating what the maximum amount is at any given time? It is clear that, at some time or other, the amount will have to be increased if this legislation and the HCA survive for a reasonable time. If the HCA does not survive, the legislation will not have succeeded anyway.