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Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 25: 25: Clause 2, page 2, line 3, after ““living”” insert ““or projected to be living”” The noble Baroness said: As we have reached as far as line three on page two of a 222-page Bill—and it will be bigger by the time we have incorporated the government amendments—I shall be extremely quick on this amendment and the next one. The amendment would add to the reference to the needs of people living in England those who are ““projected to be living””. Perhaps it is because of just having gone through an election in which, sadly, a BNP member was elected, in my mind are some of the things said about immigration and the need to provide for the indigenous or existing population only and not to look ahead. I know that that is not a view shared by the Government or anyone in this Room, but I thought it was worth putting down the marker that we need to plan for an expanding indigenous population and for immigration, which I would simply say I regard, by and large, as a good thing. I hope that the Government can confirm that the definition is not to be read narrowly as applying to future needs only but also to future people. I beg to move.