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Planning Bill

I shall speak to Amendment No. 74. I declare an interest as the honorary president of the Friends of the Lake District, which represents the CPRE in Cumbria. I am also a vice-president of the Council for National Parks. Those interests will apply to some of our further deliberations. I very much appreciated the courteous and full letters from my noble friend Lady Andrews in response to some of the anxieties that I have raised with her. I am sure that other noble Lords have shared that experience. I am glad that the Government have included the concept of consultation. When that is put in a Bill, all sorts of arguments can arise about who is included or excluded. It is terribly important to throw the net as widely as possible. That is not just a good principle in a democracy; it is also a way of winning, as far as possible, public identification with what is finally undertaken. Other specific organisations are charged with heavy responsibilities that have a real bearing on the Bill; among those, of course, are the national parks. In my experience, Ministers repeatedly have emphasised in glowing terms how important they believe the national parks to be and how much the tasks that their authorities undertake are respected by the Government. To provide a flavour of that kind of expression, I shall quote from a speech given by my right honourable friend Hilary Benn to the Association of National Park Authorities conference on 17 September. He was speaking as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It was a splendid speech and I wrote to him to say so, because it absolutely captured what the national parks are all about and the role that they play. It was almost poetic at points and it was moving, because of his personal identification with the issue. When referring to the creation of the parks, he said: "““It was through this people’s charter that we conserved some of the most important and iconic landscapes in our country and enabled people to see and to enjoy them. And now you””—" he was speaking to the authorities— "““are the guardians of this charter. And the real reason I wanted to be here today was to say thank you—to all of you—for the hugely important work that you, and all those who’ve come before you, do. And because of what you do, today our National Parks are more important than ever. They cover 8% of England, and important parts of Scotland and Wales too. Over 90% of people””—" I presume that he is referring to public opinion polls— "““say that the Parks are important to them. 96% think that experiencing the Parks should form part of the education of every child in the UK. I agree””." Perhaps I may quote once more from that speech: "““Home to some 200,000 people, including 12,000 farmers—vibrant communities, thriving businesses. And we must ensure that the homes and local services are there to meet people’s needs. That’s why we are committed to delivering over 10,000 affordable homes in communities of less than 3,000 inhabitants before 2011. We spent this morning at Hawkshead discussing how that could be done in one particular village. Far from being a barrier to development, National Park status can bring a significant boost to the local economy, attracting new visitors, businesses and investment. We must continue to work together to realise that potential””." I need not say more. Here is the strength of feeling of a Secretary of State and Government about the role of the organisations that are charged with planning responsibilities. In those circumstances, I believe that it must simply be a drafting oversight that national parks are not included in this clause where my amendments suggest they should be. Having said that, I am certain that, in the light of her right honourable friend’s commitment, my noble friend will feel able to go away and look at this principle and come back with some kind of positive response.