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Planning and Energy Bill

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I hope that we will come to costs in the second group of amendments. At the risk of straying beyond new clause 1, I had tabled another group of amendments that would have changed the permissive nature into a monetary nature, but regrettably Mr. Speaker did not select them for debate. Obviously I would not criticise Mr. Speaker's selection of amendments, although my hon. Friend may have done so indirectly and unwittingly. A potential problem with my new clause 1 and clause 1 is that if we do not require local authorities to do such things, they might not do them.