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Housing and Regeneration Bill

The hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) referred to the number of changes that we are seeing later on in the process, and I should apologise for my appearance at this late stage, too. I was present on Report to hear about community land trusts, to which the hon. Gentleman referred, too. I had the honour of serving on the Committee on the Planning Bill, which ran concurrently with the Committee on this Bill, and so I was elsewhere during that stage. However, I have looked at the amendments that we are considering and some of the discussions in another place, and it is clear that the Bill has come on in leaps and bounds and has moved forward. There seems to be a great deal more consensus about the direction of travel. I deal first with the amendments relating to community land trusts. The hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield referred to Rock, in my constituency, a number of times. It would perhaps have been nice if he had given me notice of his plans to do so; it would also have been nice if he had told me that he was coming to the constituency. It would have been nice to have seen him there and to have welcomed him, but—[Interruption.] I have always made a point of giving such notice myself, and I understood that that was the practice of the House. None the less, I welcome the fact that the hon. Gentleman is reaffirming his party's commitment to community land trusts. My party has been committed to them for some time—indeed, local authorities in Cornwall were working with Cornwall Rural Housing Association to move forward on the issue, which is why the hon. Gentleman had the benefit of seeing something on the ground and in practice. As the hon. Gentleman rightly pointed out, the scheme in Rock is a self-build scheme. I had the honour of introducing my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Clegg) to another scheme, one that was being run with Cornwall Rural Housing Association in Blisland, up on Bodmin moor, in my constituency. That scheme involves a mix of more conventional properties for rent through the housing association and the community land trust board. However, that scheme has had to be pushed forward with the help of North Cornwall district council because, as the hon. Gentleman said, despite the fact that the Government have said they favoured the community land trust model, there did not seem to be the confidence that the funding mechanisms were in place to allow it to go forward through the Housing Corporation. Although North Cornwall district council was in the right place at the right time to ensure that that scheme moved forward, I hope the amendments will mean that any other community land trust that faces the same problems will be able to get around those issues and receive funding in the normal way. We will see a big development in this sector, and both sides of the House seem to be in agreement that that is a positive way forward. I pay tribute to the work of Cornwall Rural Housing Association. It is committed to the scheme, and to developing first a Cornwell-wide model and, hopefully, more local models within that. I hope that I have been a vocal advocate of that, in terms of speaking to Members on both sides of the House.