Sustainable Communities Bill

Many people need to be congratulated and commended on the work that they have done to make sure that the Bill has reached Third Reading. Without the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd), none of this would have been possible. Without his conduct of negotiations and perseverance, we would not have a Bill of such quality. He has navigated through a complicated and technical process with considerable skill, and I am not sure that I would have been able to do the same had it been my first private Member’s Bill. I have learned a lot from the process and from him. All the Committee members are to be congratulated on their patience—if nothing else—given the number of abortive attempts to get the Bill through Committee. I hope that they feel, as I do, that it was worth it in the end. The Bill would not have reached this stage without the co-operation of the Minister and his Parliamentary Private Secretary, the hon. Member for West Ham (Lyn Brown). Many thanks go to them. Ron Bailey and Local Works have been the drivers behind the Bill for a number of years and they have ensured that we have stayed focused on the issues. As we have seen today, it is quite easy to disappear down rabbit-holes that relate to the Bill’s broader implications. Ron and his colleagues at Local Works have made sure that we have remained narrowly focused on the issues. We must remember that the Bill’s gestation has not just been the past five months—for the Minister, that is a short space of time—but the past five years. Sue Doughty, the former Member for Guildford, was responsible for first drawing the Bill to the attention of the House of Commons and for pushing it forward. Without her work at an early stage, I am sure that we would not be here today. If we sit back and reflect on what the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood said, it becomes clear that it is amazing that there is consensus for the Bill. It is radical and talks about turning the way in which government works upside down. Policy will be driven by local communities in a way that it never has been before and we will see accountability where there is currently none. The Bill will give power to the people to reverse the problems of ghost-town Britain. Every single Member will know of problems in their constituency that need to be resolved. Finally, there is a mechanism to meet the need for affordable housing and to help the towns in my constituency where there is an appetite, but not the mechanism, to deliver the solutions to the problems that have been identified. We now have a definition of what a sustainable community is and should be. The Government have done a lot of work on sustainable communities but without having that definition. We now have it, so how we can pursue our aims should become much clearer not only in the context of the Bill, but of wider legislation, regulations and guidance. It is important to remember that we are not here just because the Bill is radical. The principle behind it has massive popular support and there is a real drive to find solutions to the problems that we have discussed today. Hon. Members on both sides of the House who participated in public meetings were probably as surprised as me by the turnout at those meetings and the range of people who attended—they certainly were not the usual suspects. Although the hon. Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) does not like me using that phrase, I think that everyone understands what I am trying to say. There is such an appetite because there is engagement, which we have not seen on local area agreements, and an understanding that the Bill will cast light on not only the workings of government, but the spending of both local and central Government. The Bill is also important because people are disillusioned. When people discuss parish plans, or work at a more local level, they are frustrated that even when there is a willingness to recognise problems, there is often a block because there is no mechanism to bring about the changes that are wanted. My constituency has seen how extreme such disillusionment can get because the Cornish National Liberation Army is threatening serious action against second home owners and, slightly bizarrely, celebrity chefs. However, there is a serious point because part of the drive behind such behaviour might be the feeling that there is no other way to voice such discontent. I thank everyone who has facilitated the progress of the Bill, and I am sure that it will be considered with a similar approach in another place. I look forward to its completing its passage.