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Address in Reply to Her Majesty's Most Gracious Speech

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Rana, on his excellent maiden speech. His contribution to the regeneration of Belfast has been outstanding. It is particularly notable given the difficult circumstances in that city when his work began those years ago. The people of Belfast have many reasons to be grateful to him, not only for his commercial contribution but also for his charitable work, which has been outstanding. Recognition of his services is not limited to Belfast: in 1996 he was awarded the MBE by Her Majesty the Queen. His work in forging links between Northern Ireland and India has led to highly successful commercial and cultural exchanges. He is a man of many skills and a wealth of experience. We are indeed fortunate to have him with us and we look forward to many contributions from him in the future. Today's important debate on rural affairs, transport, sustainable communities and regional affairs could not be more timely or appropriate. Each and every one of us is directly affected by at least two of those chosen topics; indeed, many would claim to have all four at the top of their personal agenda. It is therefore all the more reassuring to welcome the Ministers, my noble friends Lady Andrews and Lord Bach. We could not be better served: both have shown themselves to be accomplished, intelligent and approachable. More than that, we could not have clearer examples of a listening government than the Ministers on the Front Bench today. The list of speakers bears witness to the profile of today's debate. I suspect, perhaps understandably given the membership and make-up of your Lordships' House, that many noble Lords will address rural affairs. They will no doubt address the subject with expertise and knowledge but I shall steer well clear of it. I wish to cover the topic of sustainable communities. I shall confine my comments to the areas that keenly interest me: urban regeneration and climate change. Members may recall that I have spoken about Catalyst Corby, an urban regeneration company that affects the whole of the town of Corby in Northamptonshire. I remind the House of my interest as the unpaid chair of its board of directors, a post I have held for the past three years. We began in 2002 as the first URC to be designated by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. Since then about a dozen other URCs have been established and more are promised. Twelve months after our launch, a number of growth areas were identified by the ODPM—areas were much needed new homes could and should be built. They were predominantly in the south of England, which was justifiable as it is the area of greatest need. The Thames Gateway and the south Midlands corridor are foremost in those provisions. Today, I seek to underline the difference between regeneration and growth. I ask the Ministers to take political stock from the results of the general and local elections, to take note of the messages that those results have sent to us, and to learn from them. In brief, Catalyst Corby sprang from the need perceived by the residents of Corby to refurbish their town—a town that has had more than its share of setbacks and was overdue for improvement. The local council, Corby Borough Council, led the campaign and applied for URC status against numerous other applicants. There was a series of visits and interviews. The key to those interviews was the fact that local people were backing a local plan for local regeneration. I joined the applicant group at the outset as I was the former MEP and Corby was very close to my heart. We were successful. Since then, we have gone from strength to strength. The town, the local media, residents and businesses all applaud our efforts. All the tickets for our annual dinner, held at the Rockingham Motor Speedway a few weeks ago, were sold within a few days. That is further proof of approval. We have an excellent fully committed board drawn from all sectors of the community, an outstanding chief executive and a splendid, recently re-elected Member of Parliament in Phil Hope. We are poised for even greater success by faithfully following the blueprint laid down for us by local residents in the original consultative period. A few miles down the road, there is a designated growth area identified as a site for new homes which are undoubtedly needed. But how different was the process? There was no consensus among the local residents to sign up to the scheme and no vox populus for 20,000 more homes, and the result is almost total antagonism. The difference between our URC and the growth area is stark. We have a welcome on the mat while it has local residents armed with pitchforks on its boundaries. My point is that we should reappraise the situation and take stock of the procedures within the growth plans. A brief glance at the general election and county council elections tells its own story. The shires have hit back and good Labour-controlled authorities have been defeated to the detriment of local Residents. It is a very high price to pay. So perhaps I may make a positive suggestion. Why not give even greater support and impetus to the URCs? In Corby we are offering 22,000 new homes. Give us special help with transport systems—I think I shall call upon my good and noble friend Lord Snape on this—and the problems that are holding us back. We are grateful to the Government, who are so crucial to our development, but could they be even more generous with both time and money? Let us back a winner. Let us join Newcastle, Birmingham and all the other glittering new cities. Let us fly the flag for more modest towns and show that bigger can indeed be better. And let us turn our neighbours green with envy and offer the growth areas a more consensual way forward. Perhaps I may reinforce that by inviting both Ministers to visit Corby and to see for themselves the scale of our proposals and achievements. I said at the outset that I wished to touch on climate change in relation to sustainable community developments. We have great experts speaking in the Chamber today, though I am not one. However, serving on your Lordships' committee on climate change has totally convinced me of the urgent need for more stringent measures. In development terms, we visited the Woking experiment and saw how enlightened planning can produce a balanced carbon-free environment. Unless the Government make it mandatory for all new build to be of the highest possible energy efficiency, builders will give us something less. That applies to the whole spectrum of new developments. Finally, as a footnote perhaps, I welcome the Chancellor's radical suggestion of shared mortgages for key workers who, as has already been said, are currently being priced out of the property market. Perhaps I may offer Corby as a perfect town for this innovation—lots of new build, nearly all on brownfield sites. We would be happy to undertake that initiative. If our two admirable Ministers would like to add the Chancellor of the Exchequer to their visit, we could indeed offer a very warm welcome from "Little Scotland".