Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I, too, thank the noble Baroness for that very full answer. I accept that any Government must have a strategy and that ways have to be found to build houses. I come at this from a different angle because we might be involved in it in a year or two. One has to make these things work. I think that the Government have got it wrong. I agree with the noble Lord that it should be much more from the bottom up, wherever it ends up. I see how districts operate and the difficulties in the local framework. I wish that the Government had done it in a more bottom-up way. Telling people what to do the whole time will not work so well. Community people need to be involved. I tend to agree with bringing the strategies together for environmental, economic and social reasons. I wish the Government had thought of letting it grow from the bottom up, rather than trying to create overarching national things. That has not worked before with previous legislation and I do not think that it will work this time. The issue will have to be revisited. As I said, everyone has to have houses and homes must be created, so we need to think about how to do that. I am sorry to say to the Minister that it will still not work. Thames Gateway, for example, involves three RDAs. The system has not worked in the past and it will not work in the future. I know that Thames Gateway has its own government systems but it is still dependent on working with the RDAs. There are plenty of other such examples around the country, which would be better organised from the bottom up. The Minister has not given us the answers that we wanted to hear.