Planning Bill

But the interlinking of the provisions of this Bill with the provisions of the Climate Change Bill was precisely his point and precisely my point. Instead of replicating or duplicating, the power of the provisions in the Climate Change Bill will bite hard on Ministers and on central Government but will not bite in the same way on local authorities. It is therefore reasonable and right to look in clause 151 at placing this duty on the equivalent plan-making power, with the development plan documents, as we are doing in the national policy statements. Finally, I turn to the comments of the hon. Member for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait). I welcome her welcome of our amendments on blight and compulsory purchase and her recognition that climate change will be considered as part of sustainability appraisals of the national policy statements. When she spoke to her amendments, she was right to say that the House will not own the policy. The policy is properly the responsibility of the Government and elected Ministers. The policy is rightly that of the Government, but before it is put in place it is also right that it is subject to strong and full public consultation and parliamentary scrutiny, which is what new clause 8 and the associated amendments are designed to do. The hon. Lady said that she did not want to see long inquiries in the future. We share that view. I do not want long, costly inquiries in which local people lose out to lawyers who make it impossible for them to get their views across. I do not want a situation where the inquiry becomes the place in which national need and national policy is debated. That is vital. It is a matter for the Government and this House, not inspectors or commissioners conducting an inquiry or an examination of a particular application. It is our responsibility to settle the matter so that decisions on applications are taken on the strength of applications within the framework of the new national policy statements. Those statements should be the principal reference for any IPC considerations. Of course, national policy statements must meet the standards of a sustainability appraisal, a public consultation and the parliamentary scrutiny set out in the Bill. The hon. Lady was kind enough to describe the form of parliamentary scrutiny and consideration that we proposed as ““new”” and ““unique””. I hope that she accepts after this debate that it is an important innovation. I hope that she also accepts that the case she tried to make for a binding vote is rather like the state of the drafting, which she admitted is flawed. I hope that she accepts new clause 8, and I hope that she will not press either of her amendments to a Division. If she does, I shall ask my hon. Friends to resist. Question put and agreed to. Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.