Legal Services Bill [HL]

It is part of the present structure that that aspect of, for example, buying a house is, theoretically, a national competition. But the noble Lord is almost contradicting his own arguments, because in practice the people of that small town will probably go to one of their local high street solicitors. There is already competition among solicitors and estate agents. Equally, there would be competition among multidisciplinary ABSs. That is the essence of this issue: the service that solicitors provide ought to be available in many different forms and in combination with other services. As I was hinting in my intervention on an earlier amendment, there may be areas where that degree of competition could not possibly survive. In the remoter rural areas and very small towns, I suspect that would be a problem. For that reason, assessment and monitoring by the regulator of the effects of introducing these alternative business structures would be a valuable addition to the Bill, at least in terms of Government commitment if it is not a legislative matter. That would be an important aspect. For the vast bulk of people, though, it must be better that the range of services that they normally need in any complex legal transaction could be made available in one place. If they do not like it, they can go back to dealing with the estate agent and the solicitor elsewhere. I said earlier to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Alloway—sotto voce, so it is probably not in Hansard—that some of my best friends are lawyers. Rather fewer are estate agents. Among the lawyers I occasionally see, and I had better not name them, there is quite a keenness for developing new and creative ways of providing their service and new partnerships with other professionals in their locality or sphere of specialism. At the moment, the whole structure inhibits such creativity and the growth of alternative services in that respect. That is why, in principle, for the bulk of consumers there would be an improvement in the services offered. There would almost certainly be an improvement in the price and the value for money of those services. There needs to be some protection for those areas of the country and those particular specialisms that might be adversely affected; they should probably be provided for. In principle, this change must be a good thing, and I therefore strongly oppose any move to exclude these clauses from the Bill.