Planning Bill

My Lords, this has been an extremely interesting debate, and I shall attempt to answer some of the points made. The noble Duke, the Duke of Montrose, asked about the Bill defining only overhead electricity lines, a point which we debated to a certain extent in Committee. The Bill defines only overhead electricity lines because permitted development rights relate to underground electricity lines. We are not seeking to change that through this Bill. Clause 15 has been drafted to reflect Section 37 of the Electricity Act 1989, which sets out the current regime for electricity line consents. The noble Duke raised an interesting point about the cost of putting electricity lines underground. As he knows, it is not a simple matter—although, on the face of it, underground lines always seem an attractive option. They can be very expensive and, as I said in Committee, can involve additional environmental and social costs. None the less, it can clearly be an option. Permitted development rights are available, and under Clause 118(1) the IPC can require that sections of a proposed overground electricity line project are constructed underground if there are strong reasons for doing so. The noble Duke also asked about electricity lines under territorial waters. We will shortly discuss a group of amendments on offshore generators.