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Housing and Regeneration Bill

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for clarifying that point. In this group of amendments, we are keen not to have, in his words, an ““edict””. We are trying to promote as far as possible, as we have done throughout the Bill's passage, positive partnership relations between the local authority in question and the agency. On that point, our intention with regards to the partnership working between the agency and local authorities was made clear with the launch of the new Local Government Association protocol at its conference a couple of weeks ago. I hope that it will reassure the hon. Gentleman to learn that it states:"““The aim will be to reflect the shared endeavour between councils and central government to secure more and better homes that are both affordable and in places where people want to live, to regenerate and renew our most deprived communities, and to build councils' strategic capability to achieve these ends.””" I suggest that several significant amendments in the other place have reinforced the intention further. Lords amendment No. 51 would require the agency to consult"““such representatives of local government as the HCA considers appropriate about how the HCA pursues its objects””" and to publish a statement on how it proposes to comply with that requirement. Clauses 13 and 14 form an important part of the relationship between central Government, the agency and local authorities and its operation in practice. They cover the Secretary of State's power to make designation orders and of the HCA to act as the local planning authority. Legitimate concerns were raised in Committee and in the other place about the wide-ranging powers in part 1, especially whether the agency would ““railroad development through””—I use the phrase of the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) in Committee, although I do not agree with it. I hope that hon. Members know that railroading was never the Government's intention. We have always stated that local authorities are best placed to know their areas' needs. I hope that that directly addresses the point that the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood) made.