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Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I know that this is a shocking thing to say; perhaps it should not even be reported. The point is that Essex sits within a region that is now as much the victim and the master of globalisation as every other region in the country. There are choices to be made. Housing is a particularly sensitive area—it is a particular issue in Essex for different reasons—but all our regions are facing different challenges from the ones that they faced when the old counties were so triumphant. One issue is climate change, which affects how we plan for transport, the movement of people, where people work as well as where they live, how we manage our environment and the balance between rural and urban areas. All those issues, and many more, cannot be contained within the most efficient authority in the world. The regions have a much more important role to play.