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Energy Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord has not answered my question, which may well be for the Minister. Have the local authority associations been consulted on this? When we have been dealing with the Planning Bill—I well understand that the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, may have been reluctant to do it this week, as we have Planning, Energy, Planning, which makes life quite difficult for those who do not have large numbers of staff to prepare things for us—there has been a great deal about consultation with local authorities. If they know all about this and are perfectly happy, I am probably content. I would have hoped that there would be a thorough consultation with the local planning authorities, because they are the ones whose discretion is being overridden.