Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have a couple of brief points, although we are basically on the same page and we support this enabling measure. The Government are fond of consulting extensively, and we approve of that. However, the Minister said that there were 96 responses to the consultation. What consideration has been given to them? We were offered a headline figure of 82 per cent which agreed with the proposed power. I have seen only one of the responses—by Zurich Municipal—which was forwarded to us and other Members who participated in the earlier debate. There did not seem to be just a binary question—are you in favour or not? Zurich’s response amounted to some 11 pages. Its perspective from being a municipal insurer in the UK since 1903 was that there were significant pros and potential disadvantages to allowing local authorities to set up mutual insurance companies—not least relating to the residue of underwriting risk and how that might impact on local authorities’ primary responsibility to deliver local services in the event of claims. Can the Minister comment a little further on the substance of the responses? What consideration has been given to the thoughtful and reasoned responses of companies such as Zurich, which display a level of expertise way beyond that which I can offer in this area? How was that distilled in such a short period? The consultation closed on 2 October and the results were presented on 13 October. That does not seem to be much time in which to absorb the comments. My second point relates to the role of the RDAs. The RDA leaders’ boards will have a role in overseeing or offering some assessment of the appropriateness of municipal insurance schemes. That may be appropriate at this time, but I am hesitant because the regional development agencies are in the vanguard of trying to claw our way out of recession. They have huge responsibilities. One of our criticisms of the RDAs throughout has been that although their primary duty is to promote business and enterprise in a region, they are often drawn into intensely bureaucratic areas that are non-core to their activities. They become involved in producing regional spatial strategies, regional economic strategies, regional waste strategies, regional cultural strategies and regional transport strategies. The RDAs have to bring all of these together. Can the Minister provide an assessment of the RDAs’ involvement in fulfilling their role as regards municipal insurance schemes. For example, if they are the bodies that will license or assess whether a municipal insurance company should be established, will they carry a residue liability if that insurance arrangement were to go wrong? I should like some reassurance on that. My primary point is not the pedantic one regarding where residual liability may reside, but a more substantive one. These bodies are supposed to be there to help in the midst of a recession and to focus on enterprise and business regeneration in their areas. Are they being given another responsibility which they do not need and which will distract them from their core responsibility?