Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

This is a good amendment, but I am not going to support it. It is good because it raises issues which are coming to the top of the agenda. Whether one reflects on the fact that things have been done in the past which can be done better in the future—such as what the amendment seeks to do—is a moot point. No doubt the Minister will help us. But there is a mood and a determination in government not merely to create the fabric but to do the job. What we have heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, is laudable: democracy needs to play a full part. But, more than having the right committee or powers, the job itself must be done. When we looked at the Greater London Bill, which is still to come back to the House of Lords, we were trying to ensure that responsibilities in housing, for instance, were strengthened by widening the strategic responsibility. Sadly, when we look at the figures and opportunities, there are some people with powers to do things who do not do them for a variety of reasons. I am always conscious, as is every Member of the House of Lords who has been a Member of the other place, that the greatest misery we see in our constituency surgeries is when people come to us who are living in either poor housing or no housing at all. I am therefore strongly of the belief that the weapons to be used in housing—and transport and economic development, for instance—need to be wielded by a tier of government which is big enough and, bluntly, strong enough, to carry through what is required. I am of course not competent to lay down what is required in every place. But I certainly think that to take away from the regional or statutory bodies and transfer to relevant—it is interesting what ““relevant”” means in this context—local authorities is something which needs not to be resisted, but discussed and debated. I look forward to what the Minister has to say. I sense that if we are to complete the jobs that need to be done in housing, planning, transport and economic development, we need as big a weapon and set of resources as possible.