| Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
Lord Bassam of Brighton : My Lords, I beg to move that the House do not insist on their Amendments Nos. 122 to 124 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reasons numbered 122A to 124A.
Moved, That the House do not insist on their Amendments Nos. 122 to 124 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reasons numbered 122A to 124A.--(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I beg to move that the House do not insist on their Amendment No. 130 to which the Commons have disagreed but do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 130A to the words so restored to the Bill.
Moved, That the House do not insist on their Amendment No. 130 to which the Commons have disagreed but do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 130A to the words so restored to the Bill.--(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Lord Bassam of Brighton rose to move, That this House do not insist on their Amendment No. 135 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reason numbered 135A but do propose the following amendment in lieu thereof--
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I beg to move that the House do not insist on their Amendment No. 135 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reason numbered 135A and do agree to Amendment No. 135B in lieu thereof.
Moved, That the House do not insist on their Amendment No. 135 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reason numbered 135A and do agree to Amendment No. 135B in lieu thereof.--(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I beg to move that the House do not insist on their Amendments Nos. 137 and 138 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reasons numbered 137A and 138A.
Moved, That the House do not insist on their Amendments Nos. 137 and 138 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reasons numbered 137A and 138A.--(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 245A to Lords Amendment No. 245.
Moved, That the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 245A to Lords Amendment No. 245.--(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I beg to move that the House do not insist on their Amendment No. 246 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reason numbered 246A.
Moved, that the House do not insist on their Amendment No. 246 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reason numbered 246A.--(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 247A to Lords Amendment No. 247.
Moved, that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 247A to Lords Amendment No. 247.--(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I beg to move that the House do not insist on their Amendment No. 248 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reason numbered 248A.
Moved, That the House do not insist on their Amendment No. 248 to which the Commons have disagreed for their reason numbered 248A.--(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton: My Lords, before we move to the Statement on the rural White Paper, I take this opportunity to remind the House that the Companion indicates that discussion on a Statement should be confined to brief comments and questions for clarification. Peers who speak at length do so at the expense of other noble Lords. There is a maximum of 20 minutes for contributions from the Opposition Front Bench and the Liberal Democrat Benches and the Minister's reply, followed by 20 minutes for Back-Bench Peers to speak and ask questions.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Whitty): My Lords, with the leave of the House, I should like to repeat a Statement which has been made in another place by my right honourable friend the Deputy Prime Minister on the rural policy White Paper. The Statement is as follows:
"A common message runs through both this White Paper and the urban White Paper. They are about tackling the real issues that matter to people--jobs, housing, services, transport and having a real say in what happens locally. We want communities in which economic prosperity, social justice and a healthy environment go hand in hand.
"Much of rural Britain is thriving, but there are real problems and many of them have got worse over the last 20 years. For example, farm incomes have fallen by 60 per cent in five years; many families cannot afford to live in the place where they grew up; and seven out of 10 of our poorest counties are rural.
"Our consultation with rural communities showed that person after person in rural areas complained that their basic services had disappeared. Over the last two decades, thousands of rural bus services have shut down, leaving only one in four parishes with a daily service; 450 village schools were closed--that is more than one every
"The countryside is no stranger to change and our task is to give people the tools to respond to that challenge. This White Paper represents a new commitment to rural communities and gives them the powers and resources to manage change. It brings together a new, comprehensive approach incorporating legislation we have already agreed. It provides a framework for our rural policies for the future. It presents a more comprehensive approach to the needs of the countryside. Increasingly, rural areas will benefit from our main programmes on health, education, housing and employment. In addition, we have doubled specific rural spending from £600 million in 1997-98 to £1.2 billion this year; and we are committing an extra £1 billion to farming and rural programmes over the next three years.
"There are five main elements to our White Paper: improving services; tackling poverty; the rural economy; protecting the countryside and wildlife; and giving more choice to local people. Access to basic services for people in rural areas is what they really want and is the most important element of the White Paper.
"People in rural areas should know what services they are entitled to. So, for the first time, we are publishing a Rural Service Standard. It will set out minimum service standards and targets for the full range of public services, from education to health and childcare to emergency services.
"To improve healthcare in rural areas we are providing £100 million for one-stop primary healthcare centres or mobile units in 100 rural communities. To reverse the decline of rural post offices we are investing £270 million to turn post offices into one-stop shops with access to banking, prescriptions, local authority and other services. I can announce that the pilot scheme will be in Leicestershire, involving 280 post offices and starting next spring. Thousands of villages have lost their local shops. We propose to offer mandatory rate relief to more village shops, pubs and garages. And we are launching a new £15 million rural community service fund to support local enterprise and help local groups re-establish lost services.
"To improve education in rural areas we have introduced stronger safeguards to protect rural schools from closure. We are providing rural police forces with an extra £45 million over the next two years. And, as the Chancellor announced, we are helping local communities which use their local church to provide community services by reducing the rate of VAT on repairs and maintenance from 17.5 per cent to 5 per cent.
"The House will be aware of the importance of transport to rural areas. The Chancellor in his Pre Budget Report froze fuel duty and reduced VED on smaller cars. But public transport is absolutely vital.
"People have told us that in some places they need much more flexible transport solutions. So we are setting up a new £15 million special transport fund. The fund will give to those parishes that want it up to £10,000 each to provide their own small-scale solutions to local transport problems such as support for car clubs, taxi services and community transport. As announced in our Ten-Year Plan, we will extend the existing fuel duty rebate for buses to community transport schemes. For a typical minibus this could be worth up to £3,000 a year.
"There is growing concern about controlling speeding traffic in villages and on country roads. We will allow local communities to make villages and rural roads safer by reducing speed limits and investing more in traffic calming. We will also invest more than £1 billion over 10 years in rural bypasses.
"Like rural areas, urban areas require affordable housing. We are doubling the Housing Corporation programme by 2003-04. This, together with local authority investment and planning reforms, will provide a total of 3,000 affordable homes a year in small rural settlements and a total of around 9,000 homes a year across all rural districts. In some areas better use of planning rules could provide one affordable home for every new home built. Our new starter home initiative will also help key workers on modest incomes to buy their homes in areas of high prices and high demand.
"There are strong feelings of resentment in some areas that second home owners benefit from a 50 per cent council tax discount while local people cannot find enough affordable housing. We propose to give local authorities in England the same discretion as in Wales to end the 50 per cent discount. As a new departure we propose to use the proceeds for extra affordable housing. This will be discretionary but it could be worth up to £150 million a year. We are required to consult on this and will do so as soon as possible.
"Like urban areas, rural areas benefit from a strong local economy. Market towns are the heart of economic growth in rural areas. We are investing an extra £37 million over the next three years to help create new opportunities, new work spaces, restored high streets, better amenities and good transport links to surrounding areas. With partnership funds this will create a £100 million package for 100 market towns. We are giving the regional development agencies greater flexibility and a more specific rural remit within the additional £500 million in their budgets. There will also be special business support and training tailored for small businesses in rural areas.
"The House has often expressed the view that agriculture plays a crucial role in the countryside and rural economy. The Action Plan for Farming
"The House will recall that my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food recently announced a £1.6 billion seven-year package for agriculture in the new England Rural Development Programme. This will increase environmental support for farmers and help them to start new business enterprises. And the Government are making available an additional £500 million to help the farming industry modernise and restructure, in addition to the £2.5 billion a year from the European Union. Recognising the real difficulties faced by agriculture, we will, in addition, reform our planning rules to help farmers diversify and we are today launching a consultation paper to give rate relief for rural diversification projects.
Our consultation has shown a great deal of concern for a small but important part of the rural economy--the maintenance of small rural abattoirs, which have faced increased inspection fees. We shall introduce additional targeted help to support local abattoirs without any detriment to food standards.
"Our beautiful countryside is valued by people who live in it and those who visit it. We all recognise the work that rural people have carried out over generations to protect the countryside. To relieve the pressure of development on the countryside, we shall be building on urban brownfields first and greenfields last. We shall build higher quality housing and make better use of land by building at more sustainable densities. Therefore, we now require local authorities to notify me of all major housing developments planned for greenfield sites.
"The House will be aware that we were reviewing our controls over roadside advertisements in the countryside. I can announce that we will not change our rules but will maintain our controls over advertisements in the countryside".
LORDS AMENDMENT
122Schedule 1, page 46, line 11, leave out (", the chief officer")
The Commons disagreed to this amendment for the following reason--
122ABecause the Commons believe that the changes proposed to be made in connection with a chief officer of a local probation board are not appropriate.
LORDS AMENDMENT
123Schedule 1, page 46, line 31, leave out sub-paragraph (5)
The Commons disagreed to this amendment for the following reason--
123ABecause the Commons believe that the changes proposed to be made in connection with a chief officer of a local probation board are not appropriate.
LORDS AMENDMENT
124Schedule 1, page 46, line 33, leave out ("sub-paragraph (5) and")
The Commons disagreed to this amendment for the following reason--
124ABecause the Commons believe that the changes proposed to be made in connection with a chief officer of a local probation board are not appropriate.
LORDS AMENDMENT
130Schedule 1, page 47, line 37, leave out paragraph 10
The Commons disagreed to this amendment but propose the following amendment to the words so restored to the Bill--
130ASchedule 1, page 47, line 37, after ("local") insert ("probation")
LORDS AMENDMENT
135Schedule 1, page 48, line 12, after ("holding") insert ("or managing land and other")
The Commons disagreed to this amendment for the following reason--
135ABecause the Commons believe that it is not appropriate for local probation boards to hold land and it is not necessary to confer on them the proposed power to manage.
MOTION MOVED ON CONSIDERATION OF COMMONS REASON NO. 135A
135BSchedule 1, page 48, line 18, at end insert ("(though they may manage it)?)
LORDS AMENDMENT
137Schedule 1, page 48, line 18, after ("hold") insert ("or manage")
The Commons disagreed to this amendment for the following reason--
137ABecause the Commons believe that it is not necessary to confer on local probation boards the proposed power to manage.
LORDS AMENDMENT
138Schedule 1, page 48, line 18, at end insert ("without the approval of the Secretary of State")
The Commons disagreed to this amendment for the following reason--
138ABecause the Commons believe that it is not appropriate for local probation boards to hold land and it is not necessary to confer on them the proposed power to manage.
LORDS AMENDMENT
245Schedule 6, page 78, line 20, leave out ("40(2), 40C(2), 58B(4),") and insert ("40(2)(b), 40C(2)(b),")
The Commons agreed to this amendment with the following amendment--
245ASchedule 6, line 2, leave out ("40C(2)(b)") and insert ("40C(2)")
LORDS AMENDMENT
246Schedule 6, page 78, line 21, leave out ("7(9) or 8(8)") and insert ("7(9)(b) or 8(8)(b)")
The Commons disagreed to this amendment for the following reason--
246ABecause the Commons believe that the amendment is not necessary in consequence of the amendments made by the Commons to the words so restored to the Bill by the disagreement of the Commons with Lords Amendments Nos. 79 and 80.
LORDS AMENDMENT
247Schedule 6, page 78, line 22, at end insert--
("( ) after "15(1)" there is inserted "40(2)(a), 40C(2)(a)",")
The Commons agreed to this amendment with the following amendment--
247ASchedule 6, line 3, leave out ("40C(2)(a)")
LORDS AMENDMENT
248Schedule 6, page 78, line 24, after second ("or") insert ("paragraph 7(9)(a) or 8(8)(a) of Schedule 2 or")
The Commons disagreed to this amendment for the following reason--
248ABecause the Commons believe that the amendment is not necessary in consequence of the amendments made by the Commons to the words so restored to the Bill by the disagreement of the Commons with Lords Amendments Nos. 79 and 80.
5.30 p.m.
"The Government have today published a White Paper on the future of rural England, produced jointly by my department and MAFF. I am also publishing the Government's response to the Select Committee's report on the rural White Paper. Copies have been placed in the Library.
28 Nov 2000 : Column 1298two weeks; more than 100 rural post offices closed each year; and, while the last administration permitted an explosion of out-of-town superstores, more than 4,000 village shops went out of business.
28 Nov 2000 : Column 1299We have already increased funding for rural buses by £170 million, with 1,800 new services. We are now investing another £192 million over the next three years in rural transport.
28 Nov 2000 : Column 1300sets out our policies for the future of farming. Farming will continue to produce the bulk of the nation's food and contribute to exports. It contributes to a good quality environment and the wider local economy; but many farmers need to diversify in order to stay in business.
Next Section
Back to Table of Contents
Lords Hansard Home Page