Clause 1

Part of Sustainable Communities Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:15 am on 28 February 2007.

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Photo of Phil Woolas Phil Woolas Minister of State (Local Government & Community Cohesion), Department for Communities and Local Government 10:15, 28 February 2007

On the power of the supermarkets, one can, of course, argue that the Competition Commission and competition laws should properly address those concerns. I have been given examples of supermarkets—I shall not name them—where some pretty bad practices have gone on. A local wine shop was put out of business by a supermarket whose managers made a note of the shop’s special offers and undercut them with loss leaders. They placed bottles of wine with a 50 per cent. discount by the till to pull in business from the local shop. One may legitimately argue that the competition laws need toughening.

Two philosophical approaches are coming together. One, which is shared by my hon. Friend, seeks to fetter the powers of conglomerates, if not monopolies and duopolies. The other approach, which is not contradictory  and is shared by Labour Members, is that the planning and development laws of local authorities need to be toughened to level the playing field and make communities sustainable. Not many hon. Members would argue that that takes away from the fact that a shop, whether small, medium or large, is free to compete. That has driven our economy forward.

Frank Dobson (Holborn and St. Pancras) (Lab) rose—

Mr. Hurd rose—