Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I part company with the noble Baroness only on her optimistic analysis that this matter is not contentious. We have put our names to Amendment 184, whereby guidance could be issued, rather than for all of this to be subject to order-making powers. It has just occurred to me that it may be that order-making powers are required for the matters dealt with by this group of amendments, because this is local government reorganisation, although we have been assured that it is not. Amendments 184A, 185B, 187E and 188A are consequential on that. Regarding Amendment 185A, I am curious as to why it is necessary to make orders about executive arrangements. The implication is that these will be imposed and that the EPB will be very like the Government’s model of a local authority. We have tabled Amendment 187A, which as the noble Baroness has said would amend her Amendment 187, not because we disagree with it, but merely because we wish to build on it by extending proportionality when there is a representative council under Clause 85(3). The amendment is for completeness. We also have our names to the noble Baroness’s Amendment 186. If the members of the board are not councillors, who do the Government expect they will be? We have the example of regional development agencies which are dominated by individuals who come from different backgrounds. This is particularly important because we are talking about local authority functions which may be carried out by individuals who are not democratically elected. I come back to my point about this issue being, in our eyes, local government reorganisation.