Clause 1 - Regional Spatial Strategy
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Tony McNulty (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Harrow East, Labour)
I fully appreciate the rather loose notion of collective responsibility in the 1979 to 1997 Government. It does not seem that anyone—new Members of Parliament, old Members or those in the other place—will take responsibility for anything that they did in any way, shape or form. The hon. Gentleman asked what the source and root of regions was, and that is it. It was tweaked, as I fully admit, by clause 11(1) of the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998. If the hon. Gentleman is suggesting that it is sufficient for local planning units in every part of the country—including London, although it is not covered in the Bill—to concentrate on small distinct units, without even considering what goes on beyond them, that is a backward step.