Planning Bill

My Lords, at the outset of my remarks, it is appropriate to say to the noble Baroness that were she to decide to divide the House on this matter, I would not follow her into the Division Lobby, but I nevertheless think that yet again she has raised some significant issues. I hope my noble friend will accept that if we are to make a success of national strategy in planning—nobody is more in favour of that than I am—identification and ownership of the plan, right down to the immediate community level, is terribly important to enable people to identify with what is being planned so that the spirit is there in implementation. If not, we will have a minimalist approach to implementation, which would be very unfortunate. Where work is done by those with responsibility at local regional level, it is important that it is seen to be taken seriously before national decisions are made, otherwise there is resentment and a feeling that things are being forced upon people, and feet will be dragged. Undermining and ““Operation Clawback”” will begin. That would be very sad.