Housing and Regeneration Bill

My Lords, the good news is that we do have sympathetic ears this afternoon. We have listened carefully to the views of my noble, and very venerable, friend Lord Graham on this, and we recognise the strength of the argument that has been put forward in favour of including in the legislation a definition of a community land trust. I should be honest and say at the outset that, although we have been committed to helping the development of community land trusts, we would have preferred our consultation to reach the point where the way that we addressed the issues raised by my noble friend could be better finessed. That is also the case in relation to the legal definition. That said, we want to respond to the powerfully expressed will of noble Lords in Grand Committee and meet their concerns. Over the next few days, I should like to consider the options for putting a definition of community land trusts in Part 2 of the Bill. I give an absolute promise this afternoon that we will bring back an amendment at Third Reading that satisfies my noble friend. We have said all the way through that we recognise the importance of consulting interested parties on community land trust definitions. Of course, there will still be an opportunity for consultation with stakeholders and for considering the detail when the regulator sets the relevant criteria under Clause 113, which concerns eligibility for registration. I assure the House that we are working closely with the community land trust movement to agree a suitable definition for our amendment. I hope that that demonstrates our support and commitment to everyone’s satisfaction. I thought I had made that pretty plain in Grand Committee; that was certainly what I thought I said. I am more than happy to make the concession this afternoon and hope that the House will accept our good offer to bring something back at Third Reading next week.