Sustainable Communities Bill

First, may I formally congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) on introducing a Bill that gives more power to local people—something that I believe is immensely important? Like my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Mr. Letwin), I think that new clause 6 goes to the heart of what my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip-Northwood is seeking to achieve. I support my hon. Friend’s Bill and his new clause, but I would like to explore in a bit more detail some of the contradictions in the Bill, because as the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) has said, it is a compromise, and there has been an attempt to ensure consensus. I am not quite as big a fan of consensus as the hon. Gentleman is. Someone—I am struggling to remember who it was—once said, ““My father taught me the value of consensus; there is no value in consensus””, and I endorse that quotation wholeheartedly. Most of the biggest disasters in political life have been brought about through all-party consensus, so, unlike the hon. Gentleman, I am a bit more doubtful about its merits. The difficulty with the new clause—and with the Bill, to a certain extent—is how much power it gives to local people and local authorities. I support the determination of the leader of my party, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron), to ensure more localism. I endorse that aim. The one problem with the new clause and the Bill is that we are still investing an awful lot of power in the Secretary of State. I agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset that true localism is about giving real power to local people, and perhaps even allowing them to make their own mistakes from time to time, but within a democratic framework, so that if people do not like what the local authority is doing, they can vote it out at the local elections. If people had some real power, there might be higher turnouts at those elections.