Planning Bill

My Lords, my Amendment No. 121 is quite properly grouped with my noble friend’s Amendment No. 120. If he and I are playing soft cop/hard cop, my noble friend is playing the soft cop by giving the Government an option to look at this matter and I am playing the hard cop by removing what I would call the offending paragraphs. We are talking about a question of degree and, indeed, a degree of propriety. However, it seems to me that giving an appointed body what is apparently, although somewhat proscribed by the Minister’s letter, a fairly open-ended power to amend legislation in order to suit the administrative conveniences of a particular planning application could cause complications in respect of some regulation, if not legislation. I had not thought of the European angle, as my noble friend has done. To have an open-ended power to change legislation in this way is an unreasonable power for an appointed body without some authoritative check. We have had this argument with the Bill before to a greater or lesser degree. I hope that the Government will listen to my noble friend’s plea. On the whole, I am sure that it is much tidier than my conclusion, which is simply to remove the power, and the problem, from the Bill. The problem would not exist, but I can foresee that that might create future problems in relation to a planning consent that the commission might wish to give. It is a question of degree, and I hope that the Government will listen to the plea. It is inappropriate—I shall not use the word improper—to give an appointed body this effective legislative power. I do not believe that it should rest in the hands of an appointed body. It should remain at the very least with the Secretary of State or some higher authority. I support my noble friend’s plea and hope that the Government are in a receptive mood.