Clause 5 - Secretary of State to report on building stock
Sustainable and Secure Buildings Bill
11:00 am
Mr Andrew Stunell (Chief Whip; Hazel Grove, Liberal Democrat)
We are now in deeper water. Amendments Nos. 7 and 8 are designed to ensure that the proposals in the Bill are technically competent, and do not plant any real seeds of controversy. Amendment No. 9 constitutes a response to the criticism that was made of the wording in the Bill on Second Reading and that the Minister and his officials, in the kindest possible way, somewhat reinforced.
The criticism was that there would be significant difficulty in establishing how many buildings there are in the country. I twisted and turned on this one and tried to find a Department somewhere that knew the answer to that apparently simple question, but the fact is that we do not know the answer. The hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings said that it was odd that we do not have a record of land use, but we are a long way from that. We do not know how many buildings we have, never mind what we use the land for. Unfortunately, my brave attempt at coming up with the right provision, as drafted in the Bill, is not capable of practical implementation for want of that information. The only way to obtain the information would be to introduce something that I understand the hon. Gentleman might be in favour of, which is thorough registration of all land and buildings and proper documentation of that. However, the cost, time and trouble that would be involved in achieving that
would be wholly disproportionate to the intention of the clause, so amendment No. 9 represents my efforts to simplify it.
The Minister will speak shortly to Government amendment No. 20, which will delete the provision on the second of the reports that are called for in the Bill—the report relating to the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000. I am bitterly disappointed that that amendment was tabled, but those who heard me speak on Second Reading will understand that I shall not resist it, although I hope to have an opportunity to respond to some of the points that the Minister may make.