Clause 14
Housing and Regeneration Bill
4:00 pm
Grant Shapps (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Welwyn Hatfield, Conservative)
I, too, welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Benton.
With all due respect to the Minister, that is not really the issue that we are debating. We are saying that there is a form of retrospective consultation, which comes in only after the HCA has, in effect, ridden into town and taken over some of the responsibilities. Before that happens—before it gets that power—it should first have a duty to consult local authorities. The argument that the Minister presses is that once it has decided to take over those powers it will then, under other clauses in the Bill, have a duty placed on it to consult. Our argument is that it is right to consult up front, and with good reason. For example, in an area where the local authority has already looked at its district or local plan and decided that building houses in a particular location is a good or bad idea—it has already gone through not only the consultation to create that local plan, but also a great deal of local consultation to discuss the issue with local residents and has come to a determination, which let us say in this case is no—it is perfectly possible, with the legislation as it stands, that the HCA will be able to ride into town and override all that local decision-making process.