Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

In the absence of both my noble friends, I shall move the amendment standing in their name and speak to Amendment 40, which goes very well with it. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, is not very well—and I understand that my noble friend Lord Tope is required to be scrutinised by his local authority this afternoon. I hope that noble Lords will understand why he is not here. I shall be very brief and I shall not be able to do this as well as my noble friends. As most noble Lords know, my noble friends Lord Tope and Lady Hamwee were members of the GLA. Their view is that it should be a little higher up the pecking order here. The fact that it is a unique authority—not a local authority or a district authority; in some ways it acts as a regional development agency, but it is a unique authority. That is really why they tabled this amendment. They feel that it is quite an important authority in London, and were not very satisfied that the districts in London would describe what the GLA did. That is why they want to leave out the GLA from Clause 2 in Amendment 40. I hope that I have explained how they feel about this, and I hope that the Government can understand that perhaps they do not have the emphasis quite right on where the GLA should be.