Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I shall speak also to Amendment 165B. We have talked a lot about consultation on economic strategy, but these amendments concern how the RDA would consult on the regional strategy. I shall go back to several points I made at the beginning of the Committee sitting today. We have had these debates before, and on the last occasion planning powers were given to regional assemblies. They are now being removed from those bodies, which at least had elected members, and given to the RDAs, which might have one or two elected members, but even then they will have been appointed to the agency. Given that, we want it to be absolutely clear who the RDAs are going to consult with and take notice of in constructing the regional strategies. We are not sure where the economic assessments we considered earlier relate to all this, but every type of authority within each region has a particular type of power. We talked about how district councils have a local government framework structure that includes planning and housing powers, while county councils have highway powers, some responsibility for education, care for the elderly, park authorities and particularly environmental concerns. It is not clear, but this provision might remove county councils from consultation on the regional strategy. We went through much of this when we considered the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill in 2004, led by the noble Lord, Lord Rooker. In fact, we defeated the Government several times in the House on the list of people to be consulted, and county councils were returned to the list. It seems ridiculous not to consult county councils when they have the powers I have just outlined. We have talked at length about not building too much into the Bill, and I endorse that again. However, this is something that should be in the legislation. If a non-elected body is going to draw up the regional strategy, even in partnership with leaders’ boards, which we shall talk about later, we should make certain that the regional authority consults with the right people—the democratically elected people in the region—to ensure that they have a real input into creating the regional strategy. I beg to move.