Clause 45 - Designation of areas subject to additional licensing
Housing Bill
10:30 am
Mr Matthew Green (Shadow Minister, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Local Government & the Regions; Ludlow, Liberal Democrat)
That is a hell of a fence the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings is sitting on in respect of additional licensing.
Getting back to the Minister's confusion about where the Liberal Democrats are coming from, amendment No. 255 is almost deregulatory and seeks a voluntary approach before the licensing route is used. Before making such a designation, the authority should work strategically with private landlords, agents and associations. The Minister can see that that would be preferable if it can be achieved, albeit with the threat of additional licensing. I am sure that the whole Committee would agree that it would be a good thing if we could improve standards without having recourse to additional licensing. This is just a probing amendment, and I am sure it is not perfectly framed. It is designed simply to ask the Minister why seeking a voluntary approach is not one of the things that the authority has to do before making the designation.
I cannot support the Conservative amendment, No. 252, because removing the phrase
''an area in their district''
would lead to over-regulation. If an authority wanted additional licensing, it would have to apply it throughout its district, rather than to the particular area within the district where there are particular problems and hence a need for additional licensing. The amendment is probing, unless the Conservatives really are going down the route of over-regulation—but who knows where they are going these days?