Planning Bill

I have put it as an observation. On Amendment No. 460 to Clause 226, which is the commencement clause, can the Minister explain why only these two provisions are to be subject to the Secretary of State bringing the commencement by order? Is it to enable the development of regulations? Perhaps I could say a word about the timing; noble Lords have touched on this already. I understand that the Government had indicated that they expect commencement to be in the spring of next year. The noble Baroness is nodding. Given the need for consultation on the regulations and the economic climate, this is ambitious, but I suppose the regulations will come in after the Bill has been enacted and the Act has commenced. The noble Baroness has said that she will write to noble Lords with some idea of when the new regime can be in place. That would have to be after the development of a charging schedule and its examination. This has been a very difficult day. I take no pleasure in being as critical as I have been, but my noble friend and I feel extremely strongly that had the Government drafted regulations rather than focusing on how to get to the next stage of the Bill, then we would not have heard the difficulties, questions and criticism that have been voiced around the Committee today. The Government are often in this difficult situation of regulations following enactment. I do not expect the Minister to comment on this; I am being slightly self-indulgent in sounding off. But had regulations been thought through instead of an attitude of ““How the hell can we get through this bloody Bill?””—unparliamentary language, maybe, but I think it expresses what quite a lot of people are feeling—we would have got to the end of this stage with much more consensus because our analysis of the problems might have come together rather more.