Planning Bill

As the Minister has so comprehensively pointed out, this is a series of detailed amendments required to implement the compulsory acquisition regime that is necessary in order to make the unified consent system work. There are a significant number of amendments, and I hope the Minister will not take it amiss if I gently chide him once again for the fact that their provisions were not included in the Bill originally. It was evident from the moment the Bill was published that a regime for compulsory acquisition would be necessary, and it should have been obvious that that regime would have to be detailed. The details that have been supplied in the amendments clearly make up the deficiency that was so manifestly there, and I am glad that they have been tabled. I shall refer to a number of matters, one of which is the right of persons who will be on the receiving end of a compulsory acquisition order to have their representations properly heard. The power compulsorily to acquire land and interests in land is one of the more draconian powers in the hands of the infrastructure planning commission, and it should therefore be used carefully, sparingly and with sensitivity. It is important that the rights of those whose interests will be affected by a compulsory acquisition order should be properly heard and respected. I am worried that when the procedure for inquiries comes to be considered, we will see that the interests of those who are likely to be affected by compulsory acquisition orders are frequently regarded as not primary in the course of those proceedings and may even be discounted altogether. That is not right. The powers that the Bill gives to the commission are very extensive, and if an individual's rights are to be usurped in the manner proposed, albeit legally, their interests should be fully heard. New clause 15 provides that an order authorising compulsory acquisition of land may be made only if, inter alia, ““the prescribed procedure”” has been followed in relation to the land. I may have missed something—no doubt the Minister will enlighten me—but I wonder where that prescribed procedure is set out. Clause 112 provides that the Secretary of State may issue guidance about the making of an order granting development consent, which includes provision authorising the compulsory acquisition of land, but that appears to be something less than a prescribed procedure. I have nothing further to add, save that for my own part I would have been happier if we had stuck with 250 sq yd and imperial measurements.