Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Debate between Baroness Gardner of Parkes and Lord Whitty

Wednesday 20th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitty]

My Lords, I make no apologies for returning to this subject. We have left the Agricultural Wages Board in a very difficult position. The substance of the matter was carried on 7 March and clearly the Government have the primary authority to abolish the board. In fact, they already had because it was in the Public Bodies Act. The difference is that the Public Bodies Act required a stringent and enhanced system of scrutiny to be followed before abolition could be implemented. We are now in the ludicrous position, after a very late amendment to the Bill, in which the only public body that is not subject to an enhanced scrutiny process—which this House insisted, after some very difficult and bitter debates, must apply to all public bodies—is the Agricultural Wages Board.

I am not sure if it is in order to cede the ground to the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner of Parkes. Clearly, her amendment preceded mine. I am getting a shake of the head from the Clerk at the Table. That is the procedure, I am afraid. I am sorry.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

I thank the noble Lord for that. Unfortunately I had to wait for the lift and I got stuck getting here. Apparently there is no way we can go back to my amendments. Is that correct? Perhaps the Minister or someone else will answer. I had every intention—I had waited here all day specifically—to move these amendments.

Localism Bill

Debate between Baroness Gardner of Parkes and Lord Whitty

Wednesday 7th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitty]

My Lords, I support Amendment 92. Those of us who are looking at the housing market recognise that the role of the private rented sector is likely to increase and that there are serious problems with both quality and delivery within that sector. I am sorry I had to be out of the Chamber when Amendment 85, on the accreditation of private landlords, was debated. However, the vast majority of tenants and potential tenants will come across the property via an agent, and, as the noble Lord says, their actual arrangements for rent, repair and general customer service will be with the agent, not directly with the individual landlord. In those circumstances, the role of lettings agencies and management agencies is vital. Therefore, it is important that this Bill provides for some ability to set standards for them. As the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, said, it is very important that the professional trade bodies in that area—the National Landlords Association and the British Property Federation—support a degree of statutory intervention on this front for the very clear reason that good landlords, effective landlords and landlords concerned with service for tenants can get undercut by bodies that do not observe decent standards.

The amendment is permissive on the Minister and clearly will be subject to some assessment of need. However, as the noble Lord says, if we do not provide for some ability to issue regulations in this area, then a whole sector of housing provision will remain unregulated, with the better agents in that area being undermined by the worse. I hope that the Minister can at least give a positive response to this amendment.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

My Lords, I apologise for my delay in getting back to the Chamber. I had jobs that I simply had to do in the House.

It is important to consider the impact of this in terms of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, of which I am a member. I wonder whether these are the sort of powers that that committee is very opposed to giving, because they are too wide and would mean that the Government could do pretty well whatever they wanted. I have clear memories of, I believe, the Wilson Government introducing rent controls, which had a disastrous effect. They appeared to work temporarily but were a terrible failure after that. Everyone found that their rents jumped up terribly, which was worse than if they had increased gradually. I have reservations on those two grounds and should like the Minister to take them into consideration.