Clause 22
Housing and Regeneration Bill
5:15 pm
Alistair Burt (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; North East Bedfordshire, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 76, in clause 22, page 11, line 33, leave out subsection (4) and insert—
‘(4) The terms and conditions on which financial assistance is given shall, in particular, include provision as to—
(a) the circumstances in which the assistance must be repaid, or otherwise made good, to the HCA, and the manner in which that is to be done including arrangements in respect of interest and security;
(b) the circumstances in which the HCA is entitled to recover the proceeds or part of the proceeds of any disposal of land or investment in respect of which the assistance was provided.
(4A) Any person receiving financial assistance shall comply with the terms and conditions on which it is given, and compliance may be enforced by the HCA.’.
We now turn to the financial provisions governing the Homes and Communities Agency and a series of clauses on which one or two of my colleagues wish to catch your eye, Mr. Benton.
My amendment puts down a marker on the breadth of the powers. The clause is staggeringly wide, and we will all want to know where to apply for the assistance. The clause states:
“(1) The HCA may, with the consent of the Secretary of State, give financial assistance to any person.
(2) Financial assistance under this section may be given in any form.”
In view of the substantial powers in the clause and the agency’s power, it is not unwise to ask the Minister for guidance on how the powers will be used and what accountability there will be.
I will not dwell on the matter, but I will simply say that, as the Minister will be aware from Question Time in the House today, concerns are being raised in the news about the London Development Agency and the problems associated with the giving of large amounts in the circumstances that are being investigated. That, understandably, raises in the public’s mind concern about the power of the Government or their agencies to handle large sums of public money and to distribute it. To try to ensure that before we get to the stage of worrying about where the money has gone, who might be responsible and whether it is being misused, there should be sufficient checks in place to ensure that that is not an issue, or at least no more of an issue than it is in the normal run of affairs involving public bodies that must be accountable with proper audit.
That is the reason behind my amendment, which, in some cases, would provide guidance. It would assure the public that there would be provisions to ensure that the Secretary of State had regard to the repayment of money and to the setting out of circumstances. That would protect the HCA in cases when there might be a problem recovering the money.
If we can move slightly beyond the amendment to the clause as a whole, I should be grateful if the Minister would assist us. The clause states that financial assistance may be given to any person. Precisely who is intended? The main recipients might be obvious, but who are the unlikely recipients? Where should this money be going? Surely it is very broad to indicate that financial assistance of “any form” may be given to “any person”. As I said earlier, where do we all apply? There must be some rules that the Minister is already considering, so let us have some sense of what they might be. I fully appreciate that they must be in line with the objects of the agency, as set out at the beginning of the Bill, but I think that we are entitled to find out a little more.
Again, I stress that the width of the powers given to the agency to distribute finance, as well as the width of the powers given to the agency right the way through the Bill, must be set against the exceptional powers of an agency that can acquire land, develop it and sell it on. Again, I suggest that if one looks at the issues surrounding the housing market renewal initiative in Liverpool—concerns have been raised by Committees of this House about how that initiative has been used and question marks have been placed against the Housing Corporation and the way in which it has handled its responsibility up there—the public are entitled to know just how these powers will be handled and what might happen if things go wrong. That is the sentiment behind the amendment and I would be grateful for some guidance from the Minister.