Clause 26
10:45 am
John Healey (Minister of State (Local Government), Department for Communities and Local Government; Wentworth, Labour)
The guidance, which is currently undergoing a 12-week consultation in its draft form, is an important part of explaining to local authorities, businesses and other groups with an interest in the projects that a BRS may support how the process of reaching a decision to introduce a BRS should work. The clause requires the levying authorities to have regard to any guidance that the Secretary of State or Welsh Ministers may issue. In other words, it gives statutory force—the bite that we may need—to any guidance, especially on which projects may be regarded as appropriate to be funded by a BRS and on how the levying authority will demonstrate that it would not have incurred the expenditure had it not introduced a BRS.
It is important that a basic level of content is included in the prospectus, which will provide the grounding for a BRS. We expect the documents not only to be rigorous in their assessment of a project, but to be understood easily by the wider community, other interest groups and local residents. The prospectus needs to be of a high standard, setting out the pros and cons of a project for everyone. Our guidance is an important part of that, and the Committee’s deliberations have made a useful contribution to developing any further thinking that we may need in preparation for the final guidance, which we will consider alongside any responses that we receive during the consultation process.