It would. Local authorities are not the right bodies to involve in entrepreneurial activity. I share the noble Lord’s opinion.
I move on to Amendment 55F. At the risk of being boringly obvious, this surely underlines the whole purpose of the clause and it is amazing that it has been omitted. We are urgently trying to promote infrastructure development and to prevent any further delays at a time when we might be entering a triple-dip recession. Housing development, as we are all aware, is very good for kick-starting our economy. It employs a local workforce, and to a large extent uses UK raw materials, while clearly performing a social good. In fact, the House Builders Federation claims that every £1 spent on housing puts £3 back into the economy, and that increasing housebuilding by 130,000 units per year, which is the Government’s projected level, could create 195,000 direct jobs and 400,000 in the supply chain. We want housebuilders to get on with it. I therefore cannot see the point of renegotiating affordable housing demands if there is not going to be a quid pro quo whereby the house developer has to get on with the development and build now. Otherwise, they are going to renegotiate and wait for the market to recover.
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