Clause 4 - Procedure for dealing with complaints
High Hedges Bill
10:45 am
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions; Coventry North East, Labour)
I want to clarify matters. I am sure that the Bill's promoter will explain his views and intentions. A few days after Second Reading, the House passed a money resolution late at night and following a short debate. If the Bill is enacted, it is intended that a maximum fee that local authorities can charge will be set in regulations. It is not intended that the fee should cover all the costs incurred by the local authority. Issues should not therefore arise in relation to the charge made by local authorities and what they do with that money.
During the consultation it was estimated that such complaints would cost about £200 to process. If the maximum charge was set at above £100, the situation described by my hon. Friend the Member for Luton, North might arise: people without substantial means might be discouraged from making a complaint. It would be a case not of surplus money but of a charge being levied by the local authority to go some way towards offsetting the costs that it incurs.
I do not want hon. Members to misunderstand our intention. We believe that, generally speaking, the money will be returned to successful complainants. Such a lobby is asking Parliament to pass the Bill because, at present, people in such circumstances have no redress other than the courts, which are prohibitively expensive for dealing with those complaints. During the consultation, no great alarm was expressed at the thought that people would be obliged to spend a small amount if they were given a route to deal with the problem.