Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 77A: 77A: Clause 33, page 15, line 11, at end insert ““take any reasonable actions either directly, or by supporting or facilitating the actions of other persons or organisations which are designed to—”” The noble Lord said: We now move on to a bit of the Bill in which the Government are in favour of lists. The Minister referred earlier to lists, suggesting that they do not like them, but sometimes the Government like them and sometimes they do not—and I suppose that we will have to live with that. But here is a list of community services that the HCA may carry out or facilitate the carrying out of. Amendments Nos. 77A and 77B, which sit together, have a twofold purpose. The first is to produce better working; I think that my wording is neater and clearer. But the second and more important purpose is to draw attention to a little bit of the Bill which is complete nonsense. Occasionally, we have the duty to prevent the Government legislating nonsense. The substance of the clause is that the HCA may, "““encourage or develop existing or new businesses … provide employment … provide business or employment services … provide safe and attractive environments””," all of which are clear, practical, positive things that it can do. Indeed, it can help other people to do those things. Skipping a bit, it can, "““provide … transport services … health services””" and, indeed, ““cremation or burial services””. This is the bit of the Bill where there is actually an undertaker. It can assist in the movement of us all into the next world or wherever we may or may not go. So ““undertaking”” was quite right. It can also ““provide other community services””. Some of us may think that perhaps the HCA will gallop to the rescue and keep all the local post offices going that are closing down, but I do not think that the Government would let it do that. However, the middle bit of the clause is nonsense. It says that the HCA may, "““prevent or reduce anti-social behaviour or crime””." Then it says, even more ridiculously, that it may, "““reduce the fear of anti-social behaviour or crime””." Many of us spend a lot of time trying to do both those things and the HCA is welcome to do the same, but to legislate and put on record that those are things that it may do—comparable with providing employment or health services, which are practical and tangible things—is nonsense. If it said that the HCA may employ local community support officers or things like that, that might be too much detail but it would be sensible. One thing that is sometimes useful to see whether wordings make sense is to turn them around and turn them into a negative. If the Bill said that the HCA may not provide employment, that would be a sensible thing to say in terms of making sense; it might not make sense from the point of view of policy, but it would be clear what it meant. But if you said that it may not prevent or reduce anti-social behaviour or crime, that would be complete nonsense. The reason why I have tried to juggle with the wording in the clause is to make it make sense. Under my amendment, the clause would read that the HCA may, "““take any reasonable actions … which are designed to””," prevent or reduce anti-social behaviour or crime. Whenever people said that they were going to do something or that something was going to happen—that people would be able to go to Morecambe for their holidays next year or whether it was going to be a nice afternoon with the sun coming out—my grandmother used to say, ““It might or it might not””. That was one of her stock phrases. Well, I say to this clause that the HCA might or might not prevent or reduce anti-social behaviour, but the legislation ought to be sensible and say something along the lines of, ““it will take steps aimed at doing that””. As it stands at the moment, it is legislative nonsense. I beg to move.