Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I have several amendments in this group, including Amendments 169 to 171, 182A and 182B. I do not want to go into enormous detail—the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, has put some of the arguments well—but the amendments all probe questions about the leaders’ boards. I am sure that the Minister will tell us a lot about this in a moment, but we have not yet heard much about how the Government see leaders’ boards. In the eastern region, given that there are something like 50 authorities, there is a lot of discussion and argument about who will be on the board. I would like some clarification about whether the person has to be the leader or whether they could be the deputy leader. Exactly how do the Government see the arrangements to create the leaders’ boards? Again, we have this sinister power of the Secretary of State, who will be able to sack leaders’ boards or rearrange them if he or she does not like them or thinks that they are not operating very well. If we are to have leaders’ boards, I do not think that the Secretary of State should be that involved with them once a decision has been made through the democratic process. There will be problems in areas where there are lots of elections. London has elections every four years, as do counties, but many unitaries and districts have yearly elections, so there may be a change of leadership every year, especially in marginal authorities. That would mean that leaders’ boards would need to be reconstituted virtually every year. There must be some way of reflecting the political changes every time there are elections, and I hope that that has been taken into account. That is the gist of my amendments.