Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

moved Amendment No. 354:"After Clause 93, insert the following new clause—" ““PURPOSES OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES (1)   Amend the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 (c. 45) as follows. (2)   In section 4 (purposes)— (a)   in subsection (1)(a), after ““further the”” insert ““sustainable””; (b)   in subsection (1)(b), for ““competitiveness”” substitute ““sustainability””; (c)   in subsection (1)(e), omit ““where it is relevant to its area to do so””. (3)   In section 7 (strategy), in subsection (1)(a), after ““formulate,”” insert ““in consultation with bodies charged to deliver social and environmental functions,””. The noble Baroness said: The Bill transfers from Defra to the regional development agencies additional duties and resources as they are transferred from the Countryside Agency to the regional development agencies. I refer especially to some of the social functions. When we discussed the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 that was certainly not envisaged. The purposes that were drawn up for regional development agencies were strictly economic with only a glance at sustainable development—so much so that competitiveness ruled the day and sustainability was very much a secondary consideration. One of my amendments aims to reverse that balance. I believe that now it is far better understood that development should be, first, sustainable and, secondly, competitive. The second part of my amendment is concerned with consultation thereon. I stress that time has moved on since 1998, when we passed the Regional Development Agencies Act. The DTI has recognised that in some of its recent guidance to regional development agencies. It says, for example, that regional economic strategies must have a clear focus on economic development, and that both it and actions to implement it must be based on the sustainable development principles set out in the new national sustainable development strategy. However, there is still some way to go due to the fact that the purposes of regional development agencies are so strongly spelt out in the original Act. This Bill offers a great opportunity to amend them and therefore allow the Government to have a much better basis for guidance. When regional development agencies consider their purposes—which lead to their targets and so on—they find that they are primarily to further the economic development and regeneration of the area and to promote business efficiency, investment and competitiveness. The last purpose is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development in the UK where it is relevant to do so in an area. I submit that it is always relevant to do so in an area. A helpful critique of the recent regional economic strategy for the south-west has been carried out by Sustainability South West, which pointed out various weaknesses. For example, it stated that the regional economic strategy included actions that would increase carbon emissions; namely, developing south-west airports and strategic roads. The regional economic strategy takes a largely high-carbon approach to tackling peripherality. It omits actions to mainstream the use of renewables, the integration of cycling and walking into the transport infrastructure, and commitments on how it will help deliver specific regional environmental strategies. A few other examples are given which I do not have time to go into now. It is important, therefore, that the Act is amended in the way that my amendments suggest so that sustainability rises to the top of the considerations, and that competitiveness issues come under the sustainability banner. The second part of my amendment is concerned with consultation. The Regional Development Agencies Act was passed on the understanding that there would be elected regional chambers to whom the regional development agencies would be answerable. Since the unfortunate experience in the north-east we know that those regional chambers are unlikely to arise in the near future, and, indeed, may never exist. However, we have indirectly elected regional assemblies that I believe, by and large, are doing a good job in scrutinising the work of the regional development agencies. Incidentally, is it not strange that Defra is giving all this away to agencies over which it has absolutely no say and scrutiny, because those agencies are the responsibility of the DTI? I congratulate the Minister on his trust, but I urge him to take some caution and look very seriously at my amendment, which at least says that all the work of the regional development agencies should be subject to approval by the relevant regional assembly. I would like to formalise, in legislation, the position of the regional assemblies to approve the plans of the regional development agencies. Without that there is a big democratic deficit, particularly now that the regional development agencies have moved out of the sphere of economic development and into all the functions being given to them, in both social and environmental capacities. This discussion offers a good opportunity to address these important areas, particularly given Defra’s wish to be trusting. I beg to move.