Planning Bill

Good; that is a good start, my Lords. The point about regional matters was very well put. I very much welcomed the comments of the right reverend Prelate and the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, on the government amendment relating to regional spatial strategies, which is a very straightforward amendment. I again pay tribute to my noble friends Lord Howarth and Lady Whitaker in relation to government Amendments Nos. 23 and 37 on design. Although I was not present when design was debated, my noble friend Lady Andrews has kept me well informed about them. As someone who has worked very closely with CABE over the years, I am very glad that she has allowed me to speak to those government amendments. I believe that the amendments will considerably enhance the Bill. As regards the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Reay, it is a great pleasure to debate these matters with him. We had a similar debate only yesterday. I very much understand the issues that he raises. His Amendment No. 37A seeks to amend government Amendment No. 37 by adding ““respecting high quality landscape”” to the requirement for the Secretary of State to, "““have regard to the desirability of mitigating, and adapting to, climate change””," and ““achieving good design””. I do not know whether this will comfort him but the Government have always made it clear that wind farms should be located in appropriate places, and that local concerns should be listened to. I suspect the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, thinks that local concerns have been listened to rather too much as regards those matters. None the less, we believe that the appropriate guidance has been given within the formal planning procedure. I understand that PPS22 on renewable energy of the Department for Communities and Local Government highlights the need to take account of environmental impacts in terms of landscape and visual effects. The noble Lord asked about sites of specific special interest. I am happy to write to him to give him further detail on that, but there are existing policies for those areas. There are clear duties on public bodies with regard to the statutory purpose of these areas when exercising or performing any function relating to or affecting land within them. However, as I say, I am happy to write to him to provide more detail. I think I have made it clear that design and climate change considerations are component elements of sustainable development. I have no doubt that the desirability of preserving high-quality landscape is another. However, we run into what I call the list problem. One has to be careful of setting out a long list of component parts of sustainable development in the Bill. I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Reay, that impact on landscapes is among the impacts that will be assessed through the appraisal of sustainability, and we believe that it is captured by the notion of sustainable development, which we have discussed at length. I reassure noble Lords that I understand the importance of the new planning process being considered very much in the context of the challenge of climate change. There is no greater challenge that this nation or the world faces. For the reasons that I have expressed, I hope that noble Lords will accept that there is a very germane reason why there still needs to be some flexibility for Ministers. There are some circumstances where climate change is not the only consideration. That is why the amendments that we tabled today probably meet the requirement of the right reverend Prelate. I am happy to have further discussions with the right reverend Prelate about this. I hope that, if he does not agree with me, at least he will accept that we are trying to sing from the same hymn sheet, if I may say that, on the importance of climate change.