I am grateful to the hon. Member for North-West Durham (Ms Armstrong) for the way in which she introduced her amendment, saying that she wanted to extend further the debate about isolated shops. She was effectively talking about estates that are rather remote from cities.

I hope we agree that, in practice, the relief scheme might be of little assistance in such cases. Generally speaking, in villages, there are unlikely to be a range of social problems affecting the environment in which a shop operates—basically, it is a question of numbers. In urban areas, there are far more likely to be adverse factors arising from the broader environment in which a shop operates. Such factors may include a deficiency in purchasing power, social problems, vandalism and crime—in short, the sort of problems that we have seen in city challenge areas.

Whereas in a village one can address the specific problem of a shop in terms of a deficiency in its financial buoyancy, in urban areas one has to look mainly at the general environment. In such areas, the sort of schemes I spoke about—the single regeneration budget schemes, of which there will shortly be 500 throughout the country—can be of assistance. If the hon. Lady would like to discuss how SRB schemes or other Government programmes can incorporate the sort of problems she raised, I should be happy to oblige her. Such programmes have to be developed, and each succeeding round brings its own lessons. When discussing such issues, I can wear my urban regeneration hat as well.

As for the points raised by the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr. Rendel), I recall that when I was in the Committee on what became the Housing Act 1996, the Liberal Democrat spokesman spoke at great length about how wicked was our intention to do things by order and through secondary legislation. He said that everything should be on the face of the Bill. The hon. Gentleman is now saying that it is terrible that everything appears on the face of the Bill, and that discretionary powers should be used. That would give my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment gargantuan powers.

The hon. Gentleman overlooks the fact that, under the amendment, the Secretary of State would have to prescribe the conditions that have to be fulfilled before the relief was exercised. I know that my right hon. Friend will be deeply touched by the hon. Gentleman's confidence in him, but, for once, my right hon. Friend believes that this responsibility and power should be expressed clearly and defined by Parliament. The purpose of the Bill is simple, easy to administer, easy to deliver and easy to understand. Local authorities have made it clear that there will be no problem applying it.

The village shop and post office in the circumstances that we have described represent a clear and definable case for assistance. We should extend mandatory assistance to them so that they can be sure they will receive that assistance. The measure is an indication of our willingness to address the real concerns affecting those areas. I am, therefore, not willing to transfer that assistance into a discretionary relief. We have tried to be precise in our intentions, and our action has been welcomed. If we were to accept amendment No. 29, we would remove certainty, clarity and simplicity from the Bill, so I cannot commend it to the House.