Clause 3
Local Democracy, Economic Developmentand Construction Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Julia Goldsworthy (Falmouth and Camborne, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. It seems ironic that the Bill will defeat the object of what the previous Secretary of State claimed it would achieve when she first established in her White Paper “Communities in control” what it was designed to achieve: to get people engaged in how public services are delivered at a local level, and to try to see things from the perspective of the people consuming public services. What we have instead, unfortunately, is the silos that already exist, which the Bill seems to entrench. Instead of trying to look at the issue in a cross-cutting way, the Bill is suddenly lumping responsibility for explaining all the complications with the local authority. As I said, it seems to be entrenching the silos, rather than resolving them.
I turn to the point made by the hon. Member for Wycombe about the withdrawal of our amendments. My understanding is that we tabled amendments identical to his. Those have been withdrawn and our names added to his amendments, so I hope that makes it clear that we are of one mind on how extraneous the proposals are. We do not need them in the Bill. I do not see how they will simplify a very complicated set of arrangements. For that reason, we will oppose them.