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Civil Aviation Bill

I support what the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, has said. I declare a non-interest in that to my knowledge I have never set foot in the county of Essex, so I do not speak for the residents who are affected by the particular claims of Stansted, but neither is the clause we are talking about. However, the fact is that when large infrastructure works are provided in this country, the habit of this country is to be extremely mean and late with compensation. That always creates resistance wherever anything is proposed. It is interesting to contrast the experience in this country with that in France, where a declaration of public interest where a new utility of some sort is to be provided is usually accompanied by much more generous compensation very much earlier, which encounters less resistance from the people involved. So I support warmly the sentiments in the amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield. While I do not expect the Minister to be immediately generous in his reply, we can always hope, even at this stage of a rather long day in Committee.