Member

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg, for Amendment 1. The noble Lord has drawn welcome attention to the role that tourism can play in supporting local economic growth. I fully acknowledge these economic benefits, but I do not believe it is necessary to amend the economic development and regeneration area of competence as the noble Lord proposes. I say that with very good reason. Tourism is, of course, a very important part of both economic development and regeneration; I come from a culture where “Harry Potter world” is a thing, so I know how important that can be. However, when specific terms such as “tourism” are singled out in the Bill, the legitimate question arises as to why other aspects of economic development and regeneration, or other aspects of the other areas of competence, are not also expressly named. The approach the noble Lord proposes risks turning each area of competence into an exhaustive and potentially prescriptive list. Our intention is for them to remain broad and flexible.