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Housing and Regeneration Bill

I enjoyed serving on the Committee with the Minister. I think that he has genuinely listened. Above all today, I have accepted—and respect—the fact that the specific case that I raised in relation to amendments Nos. 14 and 15 will be considered. I think that that will prove to be a valuable step forward. I approve of the creation of Oftenant. We felt that the name was faulty, but the best alternatives that we could come up with were Ofsquat and Ofhome, so we will stick to Oftenant for now. The Bill has become complicated. We did not have enough time to examine the details, and I think the Minister will admit privately that the Government crammed an awful lot into a very short time today. The problem was exacerbated by the urgent question that was debated earlier. I hope that that means that the Government will show patience in another place, and will allow proper scrutiny of the parts of the Bill that we could not scrutinise here. I think that the most important point to be made is that if the HCA works properly, it will help the Government to meet the target that we all want to meet—the provision of 3 million new homes. As the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) observed, if it is given free rein to wander into the activities of other quangos it may become a great, burdensome monster that will get in the way. However, I am choosing to be an optimist. Having listened to the Minister's elucidation of how much he loves the Bill, I feel that I am looking at its parents sitting proudly on the Front Bench after nurturing it thus far. The Liberal Democrats want the Bill to work. We want it to be successful, and we want to meet that target. We want both a good quality of life and high standards of community development, and I think I can say with confidence that if the HCA achieves that, the months we have spent improving the Bill will not have been wasted.