Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

I support the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, who has much more experience than me on the Floor of the House at grappling with these difficult concepts of sustainable development. The situation is similar to the debate on the powers of Natural England. There is surely an obligation on the NCC to do more than have regard. Surely there is an element of promotion and championing. I know that those ideas are difficult to formulate without being too draconian, but an organisation that exists to represent the consumer on energy—and perhaps on water, although I hope not—and other such issues should surely go much further. I hope that the Minister will follow the suggestion of the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, and will go back and read some of the debates as well as some of the final Acts that determined the role of sustainable development in other organisations. We can do better than this.