Housing and Regeneration Bill

My name is also down in support of my noble friend. I need not take as long because he has explained the detail of it far more clearly than I would have attempted to do. I feel a profound sense of disappointment because the Government are displaying all their greater weaknesses. We have 18 pages—from page 29 to page 38—the first nine establishing what I would call the legislative background to the establishment of the regulator and the following nine establishing a freestanding independent regulator who will be empowered to do his job. Then we go on through the Bill with a lot of detail about how things will work, and so on. Finally, 35 pages later, we have this measure, which throws a blockbuster into the whole thing. I accept that it may never be used, but it says, ““We don’t actually have any faith in everything we have written up until now. We don’t have any faith that it will work or that the people who have the regulator’s job might do it correctly, and therefore we have to have an absolute reserve power to amend it as and when we think fit””. That is very peculiar, and I cannot say I like it. It is interesting that the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee drew attention to this matter in its eighth report. It says, "““it is not clear that section 76 of the Housing Associations Act 1985 is a relevant precedent, as suggested by the memorandum””." If that committee says that, we need to pay serious attention to it. It goes on: "““we would consider that the exercise of a general power of this kind should be exercised by statutory instrument subject to the negative resolution procedure. We invite the Minister to explain more fully to the House why the arrangements in the bill for the setting of standards is appropriate””." If I do nothing else, I give the Minister the opportunity to explain that—thereby, hopefully, satisfying one curiosity of the committee.