Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

The Minister referred to the policy statement, which, in my view, is full of top-down rules and regulations. The longer I listened to the Minister speaking, the more I saw a whole series of top-down guidance, rather than regulations, which everyone seems to have to carry out. He said that practitioners welcome new guidance to prepare for new duties. However, if you are provided with a load of new duties but you do not quite understand what they mean or understand the legislation, of course you will welcome guidance telling you how to do it. Otherwise, you may be very worried that you are not doing your job properly. The Minister said that he detected a lot of enthusiasm among local authorities. I should like to know where that is to be found. I detect little or no enthusiasm among local authorities for most of the contents of the Bill. Although this is one of the more benign parts of it compared with some of the others, nevertheless it is all utterly unnecessary. It is legislation that does not need to be enacted. One of the basic principles of legislation always used to be that the state had no right to involve itself in the liberties of the citizen unless it was necessary. Now the Government seem to think that they can involve themselves in legislation, all of which affects the liberties of citizens or organisations, not if it is necessary but if they feel like it or it is convenient, or expedient, or for whatever reasons. I asked about evidence of failure among local authorities which are not carrying out this provision, but have been given none. However, we should be prepared to believe that some will be judged not to be doing it properly. What the Government have to understand is that some will not be doing it properly after this legislation is enacted because some poor local authorities do not do things well or do not do particular things well. Enacting legislation like this, saying that they must be good boys and girls, does not mean to say that they will be good boys and girls. This legislation will change little except that some people will be employed to carry out unnecessary work, which will result in duplication. It is not simply a question of saying—as my amendment does—that previous work should not be wasted, but rather that new work should not be done if it is unnecessary. There is no evidence at all that if you want to get a comprehensive and holistic picture, to quote the Minister, of local authorities’ economic situation, you cannot get it from them or be referred to someone else who has that information. That is the existing situation in most places and is why I think this clause ought to be removed from the Bill.