Planning Bill

I am so sorry; I had no intention of not answering the noble Lord’s question. We are not in the business of bribing anybody. The benefits that local government will see in becoming engaged in new regional planning arrangements are so self-evident that we do not need to create any artificial incentives. It will happen because it will be seen as the effective way forward, particularly when one considers the way that we need to look at our sub-regions as well as our regions. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, asked me why we are doing this. Clause 171 not only achieves what she wants but improves on the current options available to regional assemblies. We made it clear in the sub-national review consultation document, Prosperous Places, that we wanted to facilitate closer working. The clause exists because, under existing legislation, there are limits on what RDAs can do in relation to planning. There are a number of situations where local authorities, regional assemblies and the RDAs want to work more closely together. The problem is that the RDAs cannot currently employ staff to engage in functions assigned to regional assemblies. They cannot support them and cannot facilitate them even where there is a desire on the part of both agencies to work more closely together. That is one reason for the clause. We know that some regions are interested in pursuing staff exchanges or joint appointments, for example. They cannot do that; they do not have an agency that allows them to do that. So we want them to be able to take some positive options, which is why the delegation powers are there. We want, too, to avoid the risk that regional assemblies and RDAs devise solutions that might be deemed legally unsound because they exceed the existing limit on what the RDAs do. Clause 171 simply makes it possible for closer working where it is sought; it means that they can get on with the job of sharing skills. The question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, is very important—that is, who will be on the regional planning boards? I cannot answer that directly because we have yet to see how some of these new arrangements will work. Clearly, there will have to be a balance of democratic partners and skills and experience as well. To reiterate what I said more incoherently earlier, any work done by RDAs on planning must be done within the range of planning law obligations, and so on—and, therefore, the imperatives of sustainability as well. I hope that my noble friend is a bit comforted by that. The measure is timely and something that will enable us to plan more confidently for the future, if we can establish some better democratic relationships between the RDAs and the existing regional assemblies and their successor bodies.