My Lords, I support the amendments from the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, and much appreciate his extensive exposition of them. I have also put my name to the stand part notices from the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh.
I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, for meeting me and the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, since Second Reading. I note from that discussion that DCMS was largely unaware of the impact of the 2017 amendments on the negotiation of lease renewals. I wonder whether that is, as the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, indicated, because no consultation was undertaken on them. It really is important for such considerable and important amendments to be consulted on.
I also noted earlier, in response to Amendment 18, as proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Harding, that the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, resisted it on the basis that he wanted to ensure sufficient protection for those with poles on their land. If this were the Government’s justification for resisting Amendment 18, why do they not have the same concern of providing sufficient protection for those with masts on their land, which are so considerably more impactful and damaging? Can the Government explain why they refused to consult on this?
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I am not a valuer, as the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, is; I am a litigator and will therefore defer to him on the wonderful art of valuation and agree that the markets should be left to their own devices. The Government’s intervention only bogs down market forces and, as a litigator, I agree entirely that market intervention by government has only handed the aggregators and their lawyers more work and more benefit.
I also reiterate that our focus here should be on increasing connectivity. Why would a landowner let a stretch of land to a mast operator when the rent
recovered would simply be equivalent to the value of the land when undeveloped or from its existing use? That is a poorly defined concept but also, in this brave new world of ecosystem services, all of that undeveloped land now has potential to provide biodiversity net gain and to earn ELMS payments et cetera. It would appear that none of that development in the use and potential value of land will be baked into these rental negotiations. Can the Minister, in responding to these amendments, explain how payments for biodiversity, water retention et cetera will be baked into the negotiations under these new provisions?