Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the role of his Department is in overseeing the compliance of local authorities with rules governing fair competition when awarding contracts for the development of public land.

All local authorities are bound by common law and must act reasonably and with due regard to their general fiduciary duty to tax payers. The compliance for awarding contracts by local authorities for any work, not just the sale for development of public land, is laid out in the Public Contracts Regulations. There is no day-to-day role for my Department to play in overseeing compliance.

The Secretary of State does have back-stop powers to intervene in a local authority under section 15 of the Local Government Act 1999 where he is satisfied that the authority is failing to comply with the requirements of Part1 of that Act - to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which its functions are exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.