Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 5: 5: Clause 2, page 1, line 11, after ““supply”” insert ““, accessibility”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, Amendments Nos. 5 and 6 are very simple. The clause deals with the quality and supply of housing, and states at line 11 on page 1, "““to improve the supply and quality of housing in England””." We thought to bring back again the issue of accessibility. One tends to think of accessibility as something achieved on foot, by bicycle or in a car, but of course the really significant issue here is access for people who are handicapped. Regrettably, this is a very difficult issue and it is vital to those affected by it. Amendment No. 6 deals with inclusiveness. If the amendment were agreed to, line 3 on page 2 of the Bill would read, "““to support in other ways the creation, regeneration or development of inclusive communities””." Inclusiveness would include the handicapped and all aspects of the community, particularly the disadvantaged. These are important qualifications; there is no doubt about that. I suspect that the Minister will say, ““Of course we are going to do that””. All too often, despite the intent generally being there, this subject gets forgotten about. This is a problem because it affects a relatively limited section of the community. It is easier to acknowledge it in the breach than it is to do so in fact. We return, to a degree, to the question of housing design, on which the Minister has conceded. Inclusiveness and access become important particularly when redeveloping areas of the country, and accessibility in particular is very expensive if you are trying to do something with existing housing. It is perfectly easy with regard to new development but if the need is not clearly driven into the minds of redevelopers from the start, it is possible that, simply on the grounds of economy, it will not be implemented, however good the intention. These two very small amendments would improve that provision in the Bill. I beg to move.