Clause 31
11:00 am
John Healey (Minister of State (Local Government), Department for Communities and Local Government; Wentworth, Labour)
On a point of order, Mr. Atkinson. Before you close our proceedings, may I thank you and Mrs. Dean for the way in which you have chaired and guided our proceedings? You have been very fair and we have maintained a fair pace. I am grateful to you for that.
I thank the staff of the Official Report and the House for making sure that we have been well looked after and that our proceedings have been well documented. I also thank the officials—the Committee’s pace, rigour and scrutiny have certainly kept them on their toes. My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary and I have tried to keep on our toes as well.
The Committee is one of the strongest that I have served on, in the sense that it brings together Members with expertise in local and national Government and in the private and public sectors, and—this reflects the nature of the Bill itself—with experience of and an interest in both London and the rest of the country. That has come through clearly in the way that the Committee has handled its evidence and scrutiny sessions as part of the process of legislating.
I thank the Opposition spokesmen, the hon. Members for Bromley and Chislehurst and for North Cornwall. I pay tribute to the way in which they have dealt with the differences between us in a rigorous but measured way, although their positions are still riddled with contradictions, which I look forward to debating further on Report and Third Reading.
Finally, my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State started his remarks by saying that this Committee was his maiden voyage: only somebody who represents a constituency in landlocked London could describe the Committee’s proceedings in maritime terms. However, he has sailed through the proceedings; he has not tacked under pressure, but has trimmed when appropriate—when we have heard strong, persuasive arguments from both sides of the Committee. I am sure that this is the first of many Bills that he will pilot through the House, and I look forward to his leading on other Bills.