---

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I will indulge myself with one general political point, which is that the Minister made an extremely good case for the Government ensuring that local authorities can get back into the business of building housing as part of the economic regeneration programme. I wrote down what I thought was the correct interpretation and summary of what the Minister said—that the arrangements rely on good will and good sense. However, taking my first amendment as an example, I see nothing to prevent local authority A binding or blocking local authority B because the Secretary of State thinks that that would be the appropriate way to do things. I understand the intentions behind what she explained, but I find it hard to identify the provisions pinning all that down in the legislation. I have no doubt that we will come back to this at the next stage.