Clause 4
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
4:30 pm
Alistair Burt (Shadow Minister (Communities and Local Government), Communities and Local Government; North East Bedfordshire, Conservative)
We are at a difficult point, and I return to the difficulty of the time scale. The hon. Member for Bedford made his point well, but surely the period in which a bidding authority had to show some degree of public support was the period up to the submission of the bid. That is one of the criteria. My point is that some bidding authorities had very little time to put their bid together. They will have spent serious money on getting the bid together at a late stage, because it would have been prompted by a proposal by a neighbouring authority. That means that trying to gauge public consent or support will be practically impossible.
Councils have had to go on a wing and a prayer. They have spent money and put in their bids because they think that that is the best defence mechanism against the other proposals on the table. I do not think that the time scale has been adequate to demonstrate any serious public consultation, notwithstanding that the process will consider that from now on. If the Minister finds that there is no public support or backing, authorities will have spent money putting together a bid unnecessarily.