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Housing and Regeneration Bill

I disagree. As I said, there will be a close, strong partnership and a positive relationship between the agency and local authorities to provide skills, expertise and capacity to ensure that local authorities can ascertain the strategic housing needs in their area. We are not considering something only for London and south-east— every region in the country has huge need of housing, especially affordable housing. The agency will play a key role in working closely with a local authority in an area, regardless of where it is. It will ask what the local authority needs, including skills and expertise, to step up to the plate, and what funding and other things it requires. We had an interesting debate in Committee about infrastructure, and what would be needed to facilitate housing development in a specific area. We have always stated that local authorities are best placed to know the needs of their areas. However, in some—albeit rare—circumstances, the development and regeneration challenges that some local authorities face may mean that they require additional assistance and support to achieve the objectives. To ensure that that is done properly, it is right and proper that a full set of powers is at the Secretary of State's disposal. I said to hon. Members that considerable safeguards were already in place for those powers. However, the Government are keen to address concerns that were expressed in the House and in the other place. So as I said in Committee, each area will be set out in a designation order made by the Secretary of State and, in deciding to exercise that power, she will need to be satisfied that designating an area and conferring local planning authority powers on the agency is justified and reasonable. However, Lords amendment No. 8 makes it clear that the Secretary of State, in determining whether it is appropriate to exercise those powers, also needs to be satisfied that making the order is likely to improve the effectiveness with which local planning authority functions will be discharged. That is an important additional test. I hope that the House is reassured that it is explicit in the Bill that the Secretary of State needs to demonstrate clearly that exercising the powers would provide additional capacity and bring added benefit to an area. We have also addressed concerns about the consultation process in providing a designation order, and the role of the local authority in that order. Under the clauses as originally drafted and debated in Committee, the Secretary of State was required to consult all local authorities that had an interest in the area that it was proposed to designate. In addition, several specific new controls have been established. They should reassure the House about the exercise of those powers. First, Lords amendment No. 10 requires the Secretary of State to publish a draft of the order and her reasons for making it, including, of course, her reasoning as to why the designation order would be more effective. Secondly, Lords amendment No. 12 adds to the list—with bitter regret, I concede defeat on the list principle to the right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire, following weeks in Committee—of persons whom the Secretary of State must consult when considering designating an area. The list will include not only those who reside in an area but those who carry out business there. I therefore suggest that the amendments give the local government community—the local authorities and the people most likely to be affected by a designation order—far greater ability to influence the decision about whether to designate an area and the form and powers that designation may take.