Housing and Regeneration Bill

He has got you there. I am sorry, but I have some short questions and if they cannot be answered now perhaps they can be answered later. On Amendment No. 97A, there should be some justification for reducing the numbers. The Minister introduced Amendment No. 97G as simply substituting the new agencies for those that are going, but I have a question about the tax provisions. On page 13 of the Marshalled List there is a reference to the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988, and I have a similar point that I will explain separately. I was not clear why it was necessary to substitute the HCA for the Housing Corporation rather than adding it. A similar point arises on page 17 of the Marshalled List relating to omitting provisions in the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998. The short point, which may come up in other places, is that in tax legislation one is often able to offset payments and use them to reduce tax liability in years going forward as well as in the year of payment. This is a technical point, but I want to be assured that there is no prejudice to anyone by omitting the old agencies rather than simply adding the new ones. Amendment No. 97P relates to making the HCA a local planning authority, which was a point made earlier. I would be happier if that were not proceeded with at this stage. Clearly, we will have a debate about the role of the HCA as a planning authority or not at the next stage. This is an old point about pre-emption.