Clause 3
Sustainable Communities Bill
2:15 pm
Julia Goldsworthy (Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Treasury; Falmouth and Camborne, Liberal Democrat)
In the debate on a previous clause, we discussed the mechanisms of operation between local government and Departments. The clause, together with the amendments, which I welcome as improvements to the clause, are about how principal authorities actually work with their communities. Ultimately, that is what the Bill is about: empowering local authorities on the understanding that they in turn empower local communities, so that the communities’ voices are heard. We cannot have one without the other.
The hon. Member for Stroud was right to mention the need to avoid hearing only from the usual suspects who are already engaged in the existing processes. I think of the engagement that I have witnessed in my constituency before the Bill was taken up as a private Member’s Bill by the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood. There was a campaign in support of the Bill. I admit that among the hundreds of people at the meeting in my constituency, and the hundreds who turned up to public meetings in constituencies all around the country, the usual suspects were present. There were plenty of familiar faces of people whom I encounter regularly at my surgeries or those whose signatures appear regularly on petitions that are brought to me. However, there were also people whom I had never seen before.