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Planning and Energy Bill

I would still maintain that throughout the 1980s, climate change was not one of the Thatcher Administration's main concerns, and this Government have progressively ensured that it has moved further and further up the political agenda. Before I move on, I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson), whose comments resonated a lot with what I think. I shall not say too much about energy efficiency, but her point about going round turning lights off resonates with me. I am a father of four children and I seem to spend my weekends doing exactly that. As the hon. Lady was speaking, I recalled the scene in the BBC comedy series ““The Royle Family””, where they were sat on the sofa and Caroline Aherne's character, I think, said, ““Where were you, Dad, when Kennedy was shot?”” and he said, ““I've no idea, but I'm sure our immersion heater was on””—very similar to our household. We are moving towards a powerful international consensus that urgent action is needed to tackle climate change. The evidence suggests that human activity is a major cause of climate change, and that evidence is growing. This state of affairs does not just affect climate change and energy policy; it will have major global repercussions for things such as migration, economic development and economic policy. We need to tackle the problem in the round. I would like to describe some of the actions being taken by the Government to address climate change, particularly through housing and planning legislation. The benefits in particular of the planning policy statement on climate change that was published in December are central to my argument Unfortunately, when that guidance was published, the results of the ballot had already come through for the hon. Member for Sevenoaks. He may correct me on this, but had he been aware of the PPS, he would have been aware that his Bill would be superseded by it, and he might have changed his mind regarding its content. The PPS renders the hon. Gentleman's proposals unnecessary. It achieves the same ends, and there is a strong consensus throughout the House on the basis of those ends. The Government cannot support the Bill. Although we support the ends, we can achieve them through different means.