Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

We shall come on to those elements of debate under later amendments. Let me just reassure the noble Lord about something. One big change that we have made is to put the local area agreement on a statutory footing, because that is what we want to see and think would be most effective. We have lots of support for that. As he says, when, "““the Secretary of State so directs, a responsible local authority must prepare””—" but it is in the process of preparation, which we shall come to tease out in later amendments, that we shall see how democratic that process is and how the designated targets, as well as local improvement targets, will be arrived at and resolved, by an intense and thorough democratic process of negotiation between local authorities and regional offices representing the Secretary of State. It is not a new process, but it brings more within its scope. I hope that we shall have that debate later under the noble Lord’s amendments when we look at that process. The balance that we are trying to achieve is that for the first time local authorities will determine not 1,200 targets or top-down targets but a number of targets that reflect their local priorities. They also reflect some national priorities, as we need to, but they are essentially reflecting those priorities that determine the character, needs and aspirations of local areas. To return to housing market renewal pathfinders, they do absolutely essential work in some of the most deprived areas of the country, but they are not legal entities, which is why we have difficulty naming them. They are already included in some of the partnership work of regional development agencies and English Heritage, for example. Therefore, they have their place in some of those umbrella organisations. I think that I have addressed all the different examples that were raised.