Planning Bill

My Lords, as this is the first time I have spoken as opposed to intervening at this stage, I declare a business interest in a partnership that works with major developers on large schemes. The noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, will not be surprised that I oppose the amendment, and I hasten to say to him that I am not cross or angry or any other pejorative term in relation to moral authority; I simply feel that it is not the appropriate phrase to use and I am glad that he agrees. The Government are the Executive, and Parliament is the legislator and scrutiniser of the Executive. The example was given of something becoming law, but the law is different from policy; statutory instruments are secondary legislation, not policy. Parliament has a crucial role in that it can amend, reject or pass legislation. If this House wants to ensure that a detail of policy about energy, transport or infrastructure is embodied in legislation, it should ensure that the relevant amendment is made to legislation. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, said—I agree with every word she said—the job of this House is to scrutinise. The Government do not and cannot develop and implement policies with no regard to the views of parliamentarians, and the Bill as set out provides very carefully for extensive consultation with both Houses. The noble Baroness pointed out that this has come at the end of a lengthy period of consultation. Authority, moral or otherwise, comes from the careful process of consultation, genuine listening and weighing up. In the end, however, the electorate expect the Government to pursue policies, and it is Governments who are held to account by the electorate. Examples were given at the previous stage and I will not go into too much detail now because of time, but the idea that both Houses are well suited to develop, approve and pass policies is, I think, a very dangerous one indeed. I have given before the example of the completely different situation we saw in the United States when the financial package was up before both Houses on Capitol Hill—the Congress and the Senate—and the pork-barrel wheeling and dealing that went on in order to get legislation through. Many of the people involved were not concerned about issues of substance but only about what they could get for their constituencies. This is what would happen if policies were passed by the Commons and, heaven forbid, we intruded into them in the Lords. Lobby and interest groups will approach people they believe they can exert pressure on and, instead of carefully balanced judgment and careful reflection of consultation, there will be the arm-twisting of MPs, depending on their majorities, and MPs will demand their pound of flesh for their support. It would be worse if a general election resulted in a finely balanced House of Commons. The power that would go to small groups which gave support to the Government would have no connection with the merits of the policy statement, but they would use it as leverage to get the support of the Government of the day. I hope very much that we are not tempted to go down those lines. The proposal that this House should have the power to vote down policies would politicise it in a deeply regrettable way. This House, thank goodness, does not now have a built-in majority for any party, and I hope that that always remains the case. If we went down those lines it would call into question the willingness of Governments of the day to accede to that kind of balance in this Chamber because they would not like to see their measures voted down by an unelected House. It would be very dangerous indeed. I hope that, on careful reflection, the opposition spokesman will not push the amendment to a vote.