Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I have two or three points for the Minister. I am very pleased that she said they are voluntary and will not be imposed. We note that and will underline it lots of times in Hansard. Will MMAs be able to set their own targets? As the Minister knows, because she has worked with Essex a lot, we have to agree our LAA targets with government. We are happy to do that because we have debates and arguments, but in the end there is a compromise. How will the MAA targets be agreed? I hope that they will be agreed by the partners. Are we going to have to agree those targets with government? Who will agree those targets? Will it be the constituent bodies in MAAs? That is a very important point. If they are going to be voluntary, they should be agreed not by the Secretary of State or by the government offices, as it happens. Secondly, I am disappointed because I imagine MAAs and officials from one part or another being able to deliver projects. That is the cheapest way to do it. What concerns me about the EPBs is that they will set up a great bureaucracy like the RDAs. We could deliver the RDA money in local authorities much better than RDAs deliver the projects that they do. One does not want to see a great bureaucracy around the EPBs, because that would be a mistake. In the MAAs, I can see one authority helping to deliver a project and another authority delivering a project, a little like the authority in Kent to whom I talked this afternoon. That would be the cheapest way of doing it, rather than setting up new bureaucracies. That is where I see a better future for the MAAs than the EPBs. The EPBs could have 50 employees and not do very much at all. When we are trying to cut down bureaucracy and deliver projects, it must be the right way to do it. I was disappointed to hear that the MAAs would not deliver things. Of course we have to deliver things and improve on things. That can be done by seconding or using various authorities to deliver things. That is the point that I hope the Minister will clarify, because I see MAAs as being able to deliver things.