2 Overview of the Committee's activities
Remit of the Committee
4. Under Standing Order No. 152, our remit covers
the wide range of policy areas that fall within the departmental
responsibility of the Department for Communities and Local Government
(CLG): housing; planning; local government; urban regeneration;
fire and resilience; and community cohesion. As we reported last
Session, we have by agreement with the Minister for Equality also
assumed oversight of the Government Equalities Office and its
associated public bodies.[2]
Inquiries carried out this Session
5. As is apparent from the introduction to this
Report, our work this session, as in previous sessions, has continued
to reflect the wide remit of the Department whose work we scrutinise.
As well as those already noted, our major inquiries in 2008-09
included Local authority investments; Need and impact:
planning for town centres; and our continuing inquiry Beyond
Decent Homes. We also launched an ongoing inquiry into the
Government's programme for preventing violent extremism. A full
list of subjects into which we inquired is set out in the table
below:
Table 1: Subjects covered by the Communities and
Local Government Committee, 2008-09
Subject
|
Evidence sessions held in 2008-09
| Output |
| Housing and the Credit Crunch
| 1 | Third Report: Housing and the Credit Crunch
HC 101 (February 2009)
|
| Appointment of the Chair of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC)
| 1 | Fourth Report: Appointment of the Chair of the Infrastructure Planning Commission
HC 354 (March 2009)
|
| New Towns | 0
| Fifth Report: New Towns Follow-Up—Government Response to the Ninth Report of the Committee, Session 2007-08
HC 253 (May 2009)
|
| Balance of Power | 3
| Sixth Report: The Balance of Power: Central and Local Government
HC 33 (May 2009)
|
| Local authority investments
| 3 | Seventh Report: Local authority investments
HC 164 (June 2009)
|
| Housing and the credit crunch - follow up
| 1 | Eighth Report: Housing and the credit crunch: follow-up
HC 568 (July 2009)
|
| Traditional retail markets
| 4 | Ninth Report: Market failure?: can the traditional market survive?
HC 308 (July 2009)
|
| Need and impact: planning for town centres
| 2 | Tenth Report: Need and impact: planning for town centres
HC 517 (July 2009)
|
| Appointment of Deputy Chairs of the IPC
| 1 | Eleventh Report: Appointment of the Deputy Chairs of the Infrastructure Planning Commission
HC 749 (July 2009)
|
| Appointment of the Local Government Ombudsman and Vice-Chair of the Commission for Local Administration in England
| 1 | Twelfth Report: Appointment of the Local Government Ombudsman and Vice-Chair of the Commission for Local Administration in England
HC 1012 (October 2009)
|
| Supporting People programme
| 4 | Thirteenth Report: The Supporting People Programme
HC 649 (November 2009)
|
| Review of Housing Finance
| 1 | Oral evidence July 2009
HC 915-i
|
| Departmental Annual Report 2009
| 2 | Oral evidence October 2009
|
| Beyond Decent Homes |
3 | Oral evidence October and November 2009
|
6. In addition to holding oral evidence sessions
at Westminster, we undertook four UK visits. We made two visits
to support our inquiry Market Failure?: Can the traditional
market survive? Our first was to London, to Ridley Road Market
in Hackney and Chapel Market in Islington. There we heard about
the challenges caused by rules and regulations for London markets,
which were felt to be more restrictive than for elsewhere in the
country. We then visited Leicester Market, which a public poll
had recently voted Britain's favourite market, where we learned
about current challenges for that market.
7. A visit, attended by three of our members,
was made to the Olympics site in East London. This visit was invaluable
in helping us to appreciate the scale of the Olympic building
project and enabled the Committee to maintain a watching brief
on the regeneration legacy of the 2012 Olympics. We plan to repeat
the visit in spring 2010.
8. Finally, two of our members visited drug and
alcohol treatment centres in Brixton and a walk-in homelessness
prevention service in Southwark as part of the inquiry into the
'Supporting People' programme. Participating Members heard from
both staff and users of these centres about the difference which
housing-related support services can make to people's lives. They
also met officials from the London Borough of Lambeth to learn
how council services can work in partnership with drug and alcohol
rehabilitation programmes to provide secure housing and support
for local people.
2 Communities and Local Government Committee, First
Report of Session 208-09, Work of the Committee in 2007-08, HC
102, para 4 and Appendix. Back
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