Planning Bill

My Lords, this is the first time that I have spoken on Report so I should declare an interest as a member of a local planning authority and a development control committee. Once again I thank the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, for bringing these issues before the House. He did so in Committee and performed a service, and he is doing so again today. We are in some difficulty because we think that we know what will be in the marine Bill that we believe will come before the House in the not-too-distant future—indeed, there will be, if not riots on the streets, then riots on the beaches if the Government do not bring it forward this time, having come so far. We have only a few weeks to wait until we get a guarantee that it will come forward, but we do not know exactly what will be in it because the Government may have altered the draft version that some of us have already been scrutinising and discussing. As the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, put it, the Bill is part of a daisy chain of legislation that will fundamentally change our planning and development systems. Indeed, in addition to the Bills and Acts listed by the noble Lord, the Housing and Regeneration Bill—now an Act—that we considered is a fundamental part of these systems. So we are in some difficulty. The real debates on the issues raised by the noble Lord today may come when we consider the marine Bill and how the marine environment and new marine planning system slot into the system that by then will have been enacted by this Bill. It is absolutely right that we should consider this issue today and the Liberal Democrats support the noble Lord’s amendments. There will be a completely new planning regime for the marine and coastal environment, which will involve new organisations, such as the marine management organisation, new planning documents, such as the new marine plans, and new concepts, such as the marine conservation zones. It is important that the Infrastructure Planning Commission should not be able to ride roughshod over a new system that, although it does not yet exist and there is no Bill before us, is nevertheless casting its shadow over us. It is right that this Bill should recognise what will happen in the general terms described by the noble Lord, which could apply in the interim to existing organisations and systems even if there is not a marine Bill. I add my support to the noble Lord’s remarks.