---

Housing and Regeneration Bill

We are fairly happy with what we have achieved. The Bill already contained significant powers and controls. Clauses 13 and 14, especially the provisions for a designation order and ensuring that the agency is a local planning authority, include considerable safeguards. As a result of concerns that the hon. Gentleman raised in Committee and anxieties that were expressed in the other place, we have gone further. We have strengthened the Bill, and I believe that that was appropriate. Let me deal with the point made by the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) about how we ensure appropriate consultation, a matter to which we do not simply pay lip service. Lords amendment No. 21 requires the preparation and publication by the agency of a statement of local involvement, which sets out its policy for involving local authorities and people with special knowledge or relevant experience in the exercise of functions conferred on it by the designation order. The amendment also requires that, when the agency sets up a committee or sub-committee for the purposes of exercising functions that a designation order confers on it, or appoints a member to such a committee or sub-committee, it must inform every local authority for the designated area and invite them to suggest one or more candidates for membership. Those additional strengths improve transparency and accountability.