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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

I support the approach taken by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp. She said in the course of her remarks that conflicts may arise. I would like to alter that to say, ““conflicts will arise””. Given the way that the clause has been drawn it is absolutely certain to lead to conflict, and there is a fundamental reason for that: there are national issues and there are local issues, but it is very hard to find a regional issue. If noble Lords look for regional issues, they will find that they become either national or local; they do not remain regional. I would extend that assertion, which I would be perfectly prepared to speak about at length, but I will not do so now, to cover London. It does not make any sense to say that London stops at London. If you opened a really fine new factory in the south-east, plenty of people who need skills would commute from London to work in that factory. England, perhaps to the Government’s regret, is not amenable to regionalisation. It is too coherent a society; and thank God for that. I feel very strongly that the confusion that we are likely to get into with this Bill is that it is putting in a structure the middle bit of which will not work.