Clause 246
Housing and Regeneration Bill
3:00 pm
Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire, Liberal Democrat)
That is a helpful response from the Minister. I hope that he recognises the consequences of what he has said. As I understand it, the certificates that we were previously discussing incur a fee for the vendor, but the Minister has said that the Government will resource the authorities for the extra burden. I suspect that he may not have thought through entirely the relative sharing of cost between the vendors, who require the enforcement authorities to carry out the work, and the authorities. If he is honest and says that he has not thought about it, that is fair enough, but we need some clarity on the issue. This is important because it is unquestionably at the cutting edge in the eyes of the public. The answers to my questions will to a large extent define the cost of the certificates to potential vendors. The more the Government pay, the less the certificates will cost vendors, and vice versa. I highlight this matter as being of strategic importance to vendors, if only of tactical importance to the Government.