Clause 3 - Duty to determine affordable borrowing limit
Local Government Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
My hon. Friends are having a heated debate about the relative merits of the terms ''nirvana'' and ''Valhalla'' in describing the Liberal Democrats' paradise.
The Minister is not having a terribly good day. It is only a month since I had to report him to the Minister for School Standards over his grammar. I would say that golf and sailing are clearly extra-curricular activities and do not fall within the right hon. Gentleman's remit, and I shall have to consider sending another letter to the Minister for School Standards about right hon. Gentleman's Shakespeare.
Standards are slipping on the Government Front Bench, Mr. Conway. Something must be done. [Laughter.]
The Minister referred to Liberal Democrats having a conspiracy theory about the Government's desire to maintain maximum control and maximum regulatory capability. He has certainly told us about the power in the Bill to make regulations, but he has published draft regulations that do not use that power, which suggests to us that the power is unnecessary and should be removed. I do not accuse him personally of having a passion for a maximum number of regulatory powers. I know how difficult it is for a Government to deregulate: it is easy to say, but difficult to do. The main reason why it is difficult is that behind the Minister stands a vast army—a vast structure—that is partial to regulatory power. What administrator, what bureaucrat, what part of the Government machine would not rather have more regulatory power? The measure by which we must judge the Government is their courage in taking on the machine and in fighting that battle within. We are seeing some of that inevitable tension in respect of the Bill and the process that led to it.
The Government set out a bold political statement when they said that they want to free up local authorities; then, they published the White Paper. The draft Bill, however, does everything but free up local authorities. Every bit of freedom that it grants, it snatches back three or fourfold in subsequent paragraphs. After a trouncing by the Labour-dominated Select Committee, the Government conceded ground in a few areas, but it is clear that for every inch that they concede to local authorities, they are snatching a yard.
I do not feel that the Government have addressed the issues on which we are focusing in amendment No. 27 and I urge my hon. Friends and other right-thinking Committee members to support us as we press it to a Division.
Question put, That the amendment be made:—
The Committee divided: Ayes 10, Noes 12.