New Clause 18 - New form of short term tenure for councils (short social tenancy)
Homes Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
Further to that point of order, Mr. Stevenson. I associate myself with almost everything that the Minister has said. I should like to be able to ascribe to you and your co-Chairman the fact that we are finishing at five o'clock today, but it has nothing to do with either of you. It is the programme resolution.
On the whole, we have had a good-natured Committee, even if we have moved at a brisk pace at bayonet point. I thank you and your co-Chairman for your kind, indulgent and efficient chairing of our proceedings, Mr. Stevenson. I should also like to thank the officials, the staff and all those who make our proceedings run relatively smoothly, the Hansard writers and so on. I should like to thank all the members of the Committee. Just about every member has contributed to the proceedings, some more than others. I should particularly like to thank my right hon. and hon. Friends for their hard work on the Committee. The Minister referred to the model boat that my right hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon made. The Minister should have a care, as that is just the sort of example of the long-term therapy that most Housing Ministers engage in after any time in that thankless office. I also thank those who provided helpful briefings and draft amendments.
It has been an exciting Committee at times, despite an unprepossessing start, as it were. We had the alarums and excursions of the new heir to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Mr. Brake). We have discovered some interesting facts. For example, as a child, the Minister spent some time living in a caravan in Bradford, but that was under a previous Labour Government, so we should not be surprised.
Even in this relatively peaceful and quiet backwater, the ripples of great events have sometimes been felt. In Committee, the hon. Member for Coventry, North-East was deservedly promoted from Whip to a ministerial post. The hon. Member for Doncaster, North became the Whip, and we welcome that. All that happened as a result of the understandable wish of the right hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Mandelson) to leave public office and spend more time with his lawyers.
I thank everyone concerned, particularly you, Mr. Stevenson, and your co-Chairman, for a generally harmonious Committee.