Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]

Indeed. The British Toilet Association's awards are a good way of highlighting best practice in this important area. I hope that with those reassurances, my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, South-West will withdraw her new clause. I return to some of the questions raised by the hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr. Goodman) about risk assessment in the context of mutual assurance. We undertook an assessment of risk as part of the impact assessment, which has been published today. The mutual will need to be authorised, supervised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, like any other insurer. It will also need to operate in accordance with the FSA handbook and meet all FSA, Government, risk management and reporting requirements. I emphasise that these are enabling powers. Local authorities will need to ensure that any proposed arrangement meets the duty of best value and improved services for their communities. It is unlikely, as I am sure that the hon. Gentleman appreciates, that all local authorities will wish to establish or participate in an insurance mutual. We carried out research in the Department which suggested that potential take-up is influenced by the scale of authorities' perceived risks and their prior claim record. The research suggested that fire and rescue authorities were and still are keen to implement a mutual insurance approach. The hon. Gentleman asked me when guidance will be issued. I confess that in the course of this fascinating debate, I have forgotten which new clause he was referring to. However, I assure him that the guidance will be a matter for regulations. I suspect that he was referring to guidance in relation to mutual insurance. We will be consulting on it, and qualifying authorities will have to have regard to any guidance issued and to any documents specified in regulations, such as Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy guidance. On the wider issues related to the power of general competence, as I said in the debate, we committed to considering local authority powers following the recent consultation. The issues are complex and need careful consideration. The Opposition amendments may still preclude speculative activities that are aimed at the financial well-being of the authority. This is important, as the Court of Appeal ruled that such activities did not""readily obtain sanction by use of a general expression, the wording of which does not easily bear upon such activities"." We want to consider those issues, and we have consulted on the matter. In the Bill we want to correct the issue of mutual insurance, and at a later date we will deal with some of the other issues that have been raised. On the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Blackley (Graham Stringer) and by the right hon. Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer), it is interesting that the right hon. Gentleman made such a strong point about regional development agencies. I know that my hon. Friend has been sceptical about RDAs for some time. I hope that I have been able to reassure him that the new arrangements for the RDA board and the leaders board will inject the democratic accountability that he has discussed. It has been interesting to hear the official Opposition's various pronouncements on regional development agencies. The right hon. Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron) said that they would be abolished if a Conservative Government were elected, and the right hon. Member for Suffolk, Coastal endorses that view, I think. Since then, other comments have been made to the effect that the regional development agencies would be considered on a piecemeal basis. From the work that I do in the Yorkshire and Humber region and the visits that I made around the country during the summer recess visiting the RDAs and local authorities and meeting a number of businesses, I know that the help and assistance given through regional development agencies has been invaluable in the economic circumstances that we face. It would be extremely unwise for the Opposition to destabilise the situation by indicating that if, by any unfortunate chance, they were elected, regional development agencies would be abolished. That would cause huge problems for businesses. I invite the right hon. Gentleman to have more discussions with representatives of businesses in his area.