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Planning Bill

I am grateful to the noble Baroness. I am sorry if she is taking my remarks amiss. Of course I am well aware that discussions have been going on, but the Bill is now passing through the House, and if we do not make these changes now we will be left only with statutory instruments to deal with. We are not yet clear how the charitable sector is going to be dealt with. Indeed, as I pointed out, the Government’s amendment has several lacunae in it. The noble Baroness and I have debated many times in the past and her responses have always been very sympathetic. I suspect that she feels that she is put in a very unenviable position in trying to force the CIL on to the charitable sector. I suspect that the hidden hand—the elephant in the corner of the room—is the Treasury with its persistence and everlasting concern about tax leakage. I hope that she will understand that there is very strong feeling about this in the charitable and voluntary sector. The amendment has support from all corners of the Committee. I hope therefore that she will be able to commit the Government later today to bringing back a full exemption by means of amendment on Report—no ifs, no buts and no maybes.