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Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill

My Lords, I cannot be tied down to detail on expenditure but I have identified the purposes of that expenditure. That was the basis on which the Bill was put before the other place. The noble Baroness believes that such expenditure should be challenged, but this is not about implementing the Bill but about creating the framework within which it could operate if we embarked on that road. The Government are mindful that they are open to challenge, and that if we do not proceed because the work shows that this proposal lacks feasibility, the money authorised by the Bill will have been wasted. However, we have the right to travel in greater optimism than critics, for two reasons: first, we are going about this with due caution, and, secondly, the problem with criticism is that it is negative about an issue that wider society wants resolved because the present structures do not work. I commend the Bill to the House. On Question, Bill read a second time; Committee negatived.