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Local Government

My Lords, I thank all Members of the House who have participated in this debate. I thank particularly the Minister for her reply. I am sure that all who have taken part in the debate will have taken comfort from her assurances that changes will be driven from below and not imposed from above. We will carry her words away with us. I remain concerned by some of the planning practices to which I referred. I understand entirely the concerns and frustrations expressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis of Heigham, about the status of Norwich. Most people apart from a few diehards in the counties at the time would have conceded unitary status to the former county boroughs outside the metropolitan counties, but that is not an argument for unitary status everywhere. It does not follow that two-tier government should be abolished everywhere; that falls into the one-size-fits-all trap. Perhaps it is a heresy to suggest—it will no doubt be greeted with derision from all quarters of the House—that the pre-1974 structure of county boroughs, municipal boroughs and urban and rural districts had something from which could learn in terms of flexibility and meeting the needs of different communities in different parts of the country.