Clause 1
Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]
11:15 am
Peter Lilley (Hitchin and Harpenden, Conservative)
I certainly would. Had I the skill of a bookmaker, I would lay odds on different numbers. I lack those skills and am not yet aware what the racing form is on the numbers that we will be presented with, but I suspect they will be large.
The Bill is unnecessary. If it was unnecessary but costless and harmless, we could allow the Government to get away with it. But it is unnecessary and costly. The costs are probably not huge, but they are almost certainly greater than the costs laid out in the impact assessment, which are already in tens of millions of pounds. We know that every council will have to devote officers’ and members’ time to ensuring that they have conformed to complex legislation, which takes many thousands of words, many tens of pages and a multitude of clauses. They will have to demonstrate when they come up for their annual ratings—or however frequently these ratings are made—that they have done so. They will have to publish part of their reports to prove and demonstrate that they have done so. All that takes time and money and diverts resources from other more necessary activities of local authorities.