Planning Bill

I am disappointed by the Minister’s response to my noble friend Lord Reay. I thought he had an extremely good point. I could regale the Committee with a number of examples where communities have been split by this developer behaviour. It is not just wind power; it is rich developers who are in a position to use money to try to secure local agreement by various means. In the case that has been mentioned, the parish council could not even take a vote on the issue. I hope she will look at this again. My noble friend has a good point and I felt she was a little dismissive of it, which is not her normal way. The question of whether the clause should stand part follows from my Amendment No. 435J. However, I am grateful to the Minister for her Amendment No. 443ZA because it gets the Secretary of State out of where the Secretary of State should not be. I claim that as a little victory. The Minister has given precious little away throughout the Bill. It has been a long hard slog, and if she were opening bat for England we would not lose a test match.