Member

Amendments 20 and 25, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Dillington, and the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill of Bexley, take different approaches but relate to the same underlying issue: how rural areas should be defined within the right-to-buy framework. Amendment 25, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill, seeks to increase the level of parliamentary scrutiny by requiring regulations to be subject to the affirmative procedure. However, the subsection of the Bill the amendment seeks to change is concerned with Section 37 of the Housing Act 1985, which covers disposals in rural areas rather than the right to buy. That said, I recognise that the intention may be to apply this to right-to-buy provisions more broadly, and I will address it on that basis.