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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

My Lords, I have some difficulty with the amendments. I was very interested in what the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, said but I rather take the view that, given the very clear environmental brief that Natural England is now taking on, it is important that the Commission for Rural Communities should be allowed to concentrate more on the socio-economic dimensions of rural life. Perhaps there should be a clear distinction between the two organisations. One could argue that if Natural England became—I am sure that it will not—overbearingly obsessive in carrying out its functions as far as the environment was concerned, rural communities would be looking to the CRC to come forward and act as a form of socio-economic salvation. I understand the movements behind the amendments and the arguments put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, but my gut instinct is that it would be a retrograde step to put too much of an environmental brief into the remit of the CRC. I am rather doubtful about that.