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Housing and Regeneration Bill

My noble friend Lord Greaves has put his name to the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Whitty. I apologise for my voice. I hope that I will remain more or less intelligible—at least audibly, if not politically—for the rest of the day. My noble friend has kept his cold in Pendle and sends his apologies. He emailed me about those amendments—he is obviously in support of them—and said that good councils of course do all the things that are spelt out in the second amendment. He said that the mention of notice boards in subsection (2)(e) of Amendment No. 114 is curiously old-fashioned and that if the council is using its website, opponents should have a right to equal space there. That is probably covered by ““other relevant resources””, in any event. My noble friend concludes his note by saying that, "““many ballots at present are like an election in Russia (or worse)””." I, like the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, am partisan, but I share the view that if there are to be ballots, they should be well conducted.