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Session 2006 - 07 Publications on the internet General Committee Debates Sustainable Communities Bill |
Sustainable Communities Bill |
The Committee consisted of the following Members:Chris
Shaw, Committee
Clerk
attended the Committee
Public Bill CommitteeWednesday 25 April 2007[John Bercow in the Chair]Sustainable Communities Bill10
am
The
Chairman:
There is a sittings motion and an order of
consideration motion at the start of the amendment paper, which the
Committee may be invited to consider. We shall deal first with the
sittings
motion.
That the
Committee at its rising this day do adjourn till Wednesday 2nd May at
Ten oclock, and to meet
thereafter
(a)
on Wednesday 2nd May at Two oclock;
and
(b) on subsequent
Wednesdays when the House is sitting at Ten oclock and Two
oclock.
It is
good to welcome you to the Chair again, Mr.
Bercow.
Question
put and agreed
to.
That remaining
proceedings on the Bill be taken in the following order: Clause 1;
Clause 4; Clauses 2 and 3; Clauses 5 to 13; the Schedule; new Clauses;
new Schedules; remaining proceedings on the
Bill.
On a simple note
of explanation, the course of negotiations with the Government to see
what progress can be made on getting agreement on the Bill leads us to
believe that we should first discuss clause 1, which seeks to define a
sustainable community, and then move on to clause 4, on which we feel
we are closest to agreement and can most productively discuss in our
next
sitting.
Question
put and agreed
to.
Clause 1Sustainability
of local
communities
Amendment
proposed [28 February]: No. 2, in page 1, line 4, leave
out subsection (2).[Mr
.
Woolas.]
Question
again proposed, That the amendment be
made.
The
Minister for Local Government (Mr. Phil
Woolas):
Thank you very much, Mr. Bercow. In
light of the agreement that we have just reached under your
chairmanship to debate clauses 1 and 4, and in light of the tabling of
amendments Nos. 22 to 24 by my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud, it
will be in the interests of the debate and the Committee if I withdraw
amendment No. 2, which we were debating at the last point of
interruption.
Perhaps
with your help, Mr. Bercow, if I am able to catch your eye,
I will be able to respond to my hon. Friend when we reach his
amendments. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the
amendment.
Amendment,
by leave, withdrawn.
Mr.
David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op): I beg to move amendment
No. 22, in clause 1, page 1, leave out
lines 6 to 13 and insert
encouraging the
improvement of the economic, social or environmental well-being of an
area.
(2A) In this section
social well-being includes participation in civic and
political
activity..
What
a delight it is to serve under your chairmanship, Mr.
Bercow. We may actually make some progress today, so we hope that there
will be two good things in the
day.
I do not intend
to take much time, but it is fair to say that the clause needs
rewording to clarify the issue of sustainability and, more
particularly, to get the Bill off on the right footing. I shall speak
to amendment No. 22, but amendments Nos. 23 and 24 are
consequential to it so that we can have a reworked clause 1 with
tightened-up wording that makes sense of what we are trying to
do.
The amendment
would allow the Bill to fit in neatly with section 4(1) of the Local
Government Act 2000, which
states:
Every
local authority must prepare a strategy (referred to in this section as
a community strategy) for promoting or improving the economic, social
and environmental well-being of their area and contributing to the
achievement of sustainable development in the United
Kingdom.
So we already
have legislation that refers to sustainable development, and the
amendment is intended to tie this important Bill in with that. It would
require the Secretary of State to help local authorities along the
lines that they are hopefully already trying to pursue in economic,
social and environmental well-being. It summarises and improves on the
existing wording, and it simplifies it, as I always try to
do.
It is essential
that we include in the provisions civic and political activity. Such
activity is referred to in the amendment, which makes it clear that it
should be included in an existing definition of sustainable development
and sustainable communities. I have the delight of moving amendment No.
22; I shall come back to amendments Nos. 23 and 24. They are entirely
consequential on the attempt to simplify and clarify the Bill and give
it some oomph.
Mr.
Oliver Letwin (West Dorset) (Con): I just want to put it
on record that we feel perfectly comfortable with this admirable
redefinition. The Opposition have a long-running description of what it
takes to achieve sustainable communities, so we have absolutely no
objection to the amendment.
Julia
Goldsworthy (Falmouth and Camborne) (LD): I rise to add
our support for the amendment. As the hon. Member for Stroud said, it
is useful because it aligns the provisions with the Local
Government Act 2000. It broadens the way in which local
communities may seek to define their sustainability, which is important
for the empowerment of those communities. The emphasis that the
amendment places on civic and political participation is also
important. We welcome all those aspects of the amendment, particularly
the consistency that it applies to the
provisions.
Mr.
Hurd:
I rise to place on record my personal support for
the extremely constructive amendment that has been tabled by my hon.
Friend the Member for Stroud. When last we debated the matter way back
on 28 February, we had a less productive discussion; the
Government were clearly reluctant to define sustainable communities in
the Bill, as they argued that they were adequately defined elsewhere.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Kettering argued so eloquently, if one
cannot define sustainable communities in the Sustainable Communities
Bill, where can one do so?
It is welcome that we have
returned to the issue and found a form of words that works. In effect,
we have substituted a rather longer list of definitions that were drawn
from Government guidelines with a shorter list that was extracted from
the same place. I think that it captures the essence of what we are
trying to define as sustainable communities. I congratulate the hon.
Member for Stroud on his constructive amendment, which I am happy to
support.
Mr.
Woolas:
I, too, am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member
for Stroud for tabling the amendment, because it provides a way forward
that the Government can support. It is worth putting it on record that
local government welcomes and embraces the power to promote the
economic, social and environmental well-being of the area. The measures
provide a statutory basis, which the amendment will back up if it is
accepted, on which local authorities will be able to make policies and
spend money legally to improve their area. In this country, we normally
operate under an unwritten constitution that tells us what we cannot
do. These provisions tell councils what they can do; under this
definition, they can promote the well-being of their area, which is a
prerequisite for sustainability.
The amendment has to be viewed
in conjunction with amendments Nos. 23 and 24, which will provide us
with a new version of clause 1 if the Committee agrees to them. I hope
that it will.
I am
grateful for the remarks that the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood
made about the first meeting; buying time is a more
accurate description of what happened. Let me reassure the Committee of
the Governments intention to move forward on this. We will
support an amended Bill; we have collective agreement to that policy.
However, I should give notice that, having sought the advice of
parliamentary counsel in light of policy instructions on the matter, we
will need to take heed of that advice. I want to be frank with the
Committee, and I do not want to be unfairly criticised if I come back
with amendments that improve the Bill but do not negate the policy
intentions. I do not want to be fairly criticised either, but although
it would be unpleasant to be criticised unfairly, one has to live with
fair criticism.
We
intend to support a sustainable communities Bill. As has been said, we
have to start with a definition, and the one that has been provided
gives us the best way forward, so I support the
amendment.
Question
put and agreed
to.
Amendment
agreed to.
Amendment by leave
withdrawn.
Mr.
Drew:
I beg to move amendment No. 23, in
clause 1, page 1, line 14, leave
out local authorities
and.
The
Chairman:
With this it will be convenient to
discuss the following: Amendment No. 24, in clause 1, page 1, line 17,
leave out from Act to end of line 3 on page
2.
Government
amendment No.
4
Mr.
Drew:
Thank you, Mr. Bercow, for making it
clear that we are making such good progress. These are simple
amendments, and their effect would be that the wording of the clause
made more sense.
Amendment No. 23 is a technical
amendment. It takes account of the fact that the term principal
councils includes local authorities, so the superfluous words
should be removed. Amendment No. 24 is designed to deal with a drafting
error. It allows us to leave out the guidance to principal councils on
promoting sustainable communities, but makes it clear that that is
their responsibility. On that basis, I hope that the Committee will
agree to the amendments so that we can make progress towards producing
a new version of clause 1 that is worded as we want it to
be.
Mr.
Letwin:
Not only do I support the hon. Gentlemans
amendments; I cannot understand why subsection (4) was there in the
first place. It is clearly a massive improvement to remove the
requirement for that wholly unnecessary guidance, and I am grateful to
the hon. Gentleman for having proposed that we do so.
Julia
Goldsworthy:
We support the amendments. My understanding
is that amendment No. 24 empowers local authorities to use their own
terms of reference to promote the sustainability of their communities
by taking power away from the Secretary of State and making it clear
that the responsibility lies with them. On that basis, we are happy to
support it.
Question put and agreed
to.
Amendment
agreed
to.
Amendment
made: No. 24, in clause 1, page 1, line 17, leave
out from Act to end of line 3 on page
2.[Mr.
Drew.]
Clause
1, as amended, ordered to stand part of the
Bill.
Further consideration
adjourned.[Mr.
Hurd.]
Adjourned
accordingly at sixteen minutes past Ten
oclock.
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