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Planning Bill

My Lords, I have spent the past three weeks giving help to all sides of the House. The noble Earl is a very experienced parliamentarian, and he knows that it is easy for me to say that I am happy to consider the amendment between now and Third Reading. The danger is that noble Lords will think that that is tantamount to saying that I am prepared to give a concession. I am certainly happy to engage with the noble Lord, Lord Reay, after the debate and discuss it further with him, but I would not want the House to be under any misapprehension, and the Government think that landscape is essentially covered in the general consideration of sustainability as I described it earlier. We are very averse to adding more lists into the Bill, for all the reasons that noble Lords know. The more that you define through a list system, the more you exclude. If the noble Lord accepts that I will engage with him, but that I cannot hold out a promise of a government amendment on Third Reading, I am happy to do so.