Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, I congratulate the Minister and his colleagues on having listened carefully in Committee and on obviously having consulted. The wording of this run of amendments does not just come from the minds of the Minister or civil servants. It must be the product of consultation and of trying to obtain the best possible form of words to carry out what is seen not only by Londoners but also by the whole country as the need to be more strategic in planning and in using our facilities and money to provide a good strategy for waste. It is really a question of not just settling for half, but of being politically realistic about the alternatives. I share the Government’s stance, which is also shared by London Councils, that there are some limits; if this strategy had not been produced, I can see that there would have been mayhem or worse in the relationships between London Councils and the Government. The Minister and the Government have actually produced the means of getting the best possible arrangements here. Clearly, there is a move that the Bill, and the powers of the Mayor, ought to be different. We will perhaps hear about that in later amendments, but we must be politically realistic. I have trawled for reactions in a number of quarters, and in the light of my knowledge of those it is quite clear that the time is not ripe for a major step beyond that envisaged in these clauses. So although the words ““congratulate”” and ““Government”” rarely drop from the lips of many Members of this House, they certainly drop from mine, and I give the Minister my thanks.