To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has received any representations about the Local Government (Promotion of Economic Development) Regulations 1990; and if he will make a statement.

The Association of District Councils and a number of individual councils have argued that it would be sufficient if local authorities that are not education authorities consulted their local education authority about the programmes of education and training that they provide for economic development purposes. We have accepted this, and the Department is consulting the local authority associations on draft regulations to replace the current requirement to obtain the consent of the local education authority to those programmes with a requirement to consult the local education authority. The draft regulations also make it clear that the new economic development power is not intended to change the rules on the disposal of land at less than the best considered reasonably obtainable.