Clause 1
Housing Corporation (Delegation) etc. Bill
4:30 pm
Michael Gove (Shadow Minister (Housing), Communities and Local Government; Surrey Heath, Conservative)
I have sought to be crystal clear on the subject. My point is that we have seen the consequences of failing to do that proper audit work in one particular area. I am not making a party-political point because, as the hon. Lady knows, the original form of the legislation was passed under a Conservative Government, but we know that the consequence of waiting until now to put the matter right is introducing an element of risk into the lending market.
I do not know what the consequences would be in a variety of other areas, but I can prudently give this estimate. If one considers the amount of time that it is likely to take the Minister’s civil servants and others to look at the bodies that might be affected, if one weighs in the balance the consequences of not conducting the audit and if, in even one case, a situation similar to the one that we are discussing were likely, any normal person would conclude that it was worth while conducting the rest of that audit, rather than risking undergoing the process again. I talked about compassionate Conservatism, but that seems an eminently common-sense Conservative point of view.
I repeat for clarity that the evidence is before us. The Minister said that a majority of bodies were affected. She asks the Opposition a series of questions, but I noted that when the Minister mentioned that a majority of bodies were affected, the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, South-West, did not ask a question of the Executive—a rare lapse from the otherwise Olympian standards that she sets herself in the scrutiny business.