Housing and Regeneration Bill

I am beginning to wish that the noble Baroness had been detained longer at her conference. She has certainly raised some interesting issues. Again, the problem of having a list has arisen. The overriding principle behind these items is that, when there has been question of partnerships building regeneration across the country—that is, in the work of English Partnerships in relation to local authorities and in other ways—these are the sorts of things that local authorities have said they want and they are things that make a real difference. They are clearly not to do with statutory services or providing educational institutions; rather, they are about putting in place things that make a real difference to a place. They are what makes a place safe, attractive and thriving. The term ““social”” does not mean social services; it means social provision. That could be community provision; for example, a community hall or somewhere for the voluntary sector to meet and get on with the things that it can do best. It fits alongside recreational activity. In that context, ““religious”” does not mean building places of worship; it means enabling religious organisations, which sometimes need space for religious community activity. There are many examples of that. Again, it is about meeting the needs of the local community and about what can be agreed between the local authority and the HCA in its partnership. On that basis, the list is both flexible enough to allow for the sort of innovation and social enterprise that the HCA would be very good at encouraging—that is, providing employment or training opportunities—and broad enough to be able to do the sorts of things that I suggested in terms of the environment, such as attending to proper design. Frankly, people will always be able to point out flaws and criticise this type of set of definitions, but here we have something that is fairly robust and flexible. With regard to cremation or burial services, my understanding is that, when you are involved in shaping places, whether they are new or old, you have to think of those essential parts of community provision. It may look a bit odd to include that type of service but I think that it makes sense if you are looking at the needs of the whole community. I am afraid that I cannot do better than that. I suspect that we will have a long debate on this matter at some other point. If I were to write to noble Lords, I could explain in a little more detail some of the rationale behind this provision and the way in which we expect these elements to combine together to fill the picture of community provision.