Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

My Lords, Amendments 49 and 50, and Amendment 58, address the issue of the local authority economic assessment duty. As the Bill stands, Clause 65(5) requires principal local authorities to consult partner authorities and such other persons, if any, as it considers appropriate in preparing their local economic assessments; in Clause 66, we have listed these partner authorities. In Committee and on Report, there was considerable debate about whether it was appropriate to list partner authorities in the Bill. On Report, the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, argued that by listing partners in the Bill there was a danger that local authorities would adopt a tick-box mentality, and not give partners their rightful and full role. She argued that it would be better to place the onus on local authorities so that they can give proper thought to who they should consult. On Report, I stressed that our intention was to keep prescription to a minimum and to allow room for local flexibility; I was impressed by the arguments made. I promised to return at Third Reading with appropriate amendments to address these concerns, because we want that consultation to be taken seriously in order to generate the most useful assessments. Amendment 49 therefore replaces the requirement listed in Clause 66 for local authorities to consult those partner authorities with a requirement to consult such persons as the authority considers appropriate. Amendment 50 removes Clause 66. I reiterate, therefore, that we fully agree that consultation with key partners is crucial, if local authority economic assessments are to be accurate and useful. It is important that local authorities work closely with their key local partners to achieve consensus about the state of the local economy, and we intend to stress the need for thorough consultation with partners in future guidance. We accept, however, that local authorities should be given the flexibility to determine who they should consult. Amendment 58 is a minor and technical amendment to deal with an anomaly in the commencement provisions. Clause 144(4) currently provides for the local economic assessment duty to come into force two months after the Act is passed. We are committed to ensuring that any new duties we place on local authorities are properly funded. For the economic assessment duty, this funding will be made available from April 2010. The amendment allows the economic assessment provisions to be commenced by order so that we can ensure that commencement is aligned with the allocation of this new funding. I beg to move.