Scrutiny of Localism Bill social housing provisions "a mockery of legislative process", says Law Society

The Law Society has slammed the lack of time given to scrutinising the social housing provisions of the Localism Bill, claiming that it made “a mockery of the legislative process” and warning that vulnerable people could be put at risk as a result.

The Bill completed the committee stage in the House of Lords on 20 July.

According to Chancery Lane, the government’s “inadequate” time allocation meant that 92 clauses and 12 schedules in the Bill were considered in a five-hour period. These provisions included all those relating to social housing.

The government declined to allocate additional days for the committee stage.

Law Society Chief Executive Des Hudson said: “This is a failure of the democratic process to protect vulnerable people. It is impossible for the Lords to effectively carry out their function of scrutiny if they are forced to consider 40% of an enormous Bill in less than five hours.

“This Bill includes some of the most radical social housing reforms in recent memory. The government has avoided scrutiny of them through regrettable haste.”

Hudson suggested that peers had been put in a very difficult position, left with no time to vote on amendments.

“As a result we had peers withdrawing amendments that would have helped protect vulnerable people, simply so that other elements of the Bill could receive at least cursory examination – and the government got away with dealing with the issues in summary,” he said. “Ignoring the vast amount of work by peers that went into considering the Bill and drafting their amendments makes a mockery of the legislative process.”

The Law Society chief executive claimed that some of the most controversial aspects of the reforms “were skipped over with no discussion whatsoever”.

These include proposals to restrict access to justice through the Housing Ombudsman via a so-called ‘democratic filter’, which Hudson described as a cynical move.

“Ultimately, the government’s proposals on homelessness duties, succession rights and the Housing Ombudsman – to name but a few – are going to have a real and terrible impact on vulnerable people, whose interests are being sacrificed to the government’s artificial legislative timetable,” he said.

The Law Society called on ministers to allocate adequate time for the consideration of these provisions during the Report Stage, which will begin on 5 September 2011.