Energy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments 20AA and 20AB. I will be very brief because I believe I have covered quite a lot of this. We also have an amendment coming up later which is a little similar to amendments that I am speaking to here. I have already discussed the fact that I am concerned that we do not have a very good timetable for the regulations. Nevertheless, the Bill allows for some regulations to be made to deal with the worst properties, and that is what I have been assuming in some of my amendments. However, the Bill says that the Secretary of State ““may””, and I have asked that it be ““must””. If I had been well tutored by the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, it would be ““must””—I have put ““shall””, but I think we all know what I mean, so let us leave it at that for now and not have a long discussion about may, shall and must. I have already indicated that I think that if landlords are not complying with the regulations for the very worst properties—my noble friend Lord Best said this in speaking to other amendments—and if they are not letting these properties which, frankly, probably none of us in this Room would want to live in, then we need to be a bit clearer about how and when we are going to act. At the moment, under the housing health and safety rating system, where there are health hazards, the local authorities can go in, do the work and charge people for them. It is a far more effective way than fining people, because if we fine people, as I said, the work does not actually get done. It is clear that the Minister could bring in regulations in this legislation and the penalty put forward on the face of the Bill is £5,000. I have suggested that we make it £10,000, but it is clear from my Amendment 20AA that I prefer that we have local authorities going in and doing the work rather than fining, because then you actually get it done. At this stage in proceedings, I will not say anything else, and I beg to move.