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Planning Bill

My Lords, I am grateful for the support from all parts of the House, particularly for the amendment that simply exempts affordable housing from CIL. There was little sympathy for the other amendment, and I entirely understand why. I would not wish to press it too far myself because, as both the Minister and the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, pointed out, it adds complexity to complexity. The aim must be simply to try to exclude affordable housing. I sympathise deeply with the Minister in trying to construct the definitions that would achieve such an exclusion sensibly. She hopes that they will be ready in time to be written into regulations. I would not have thought there was much difference between setting them out in regulations and putting them in the Bill, except for the added comfort of having them in legislation. However, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for undertaking to prepare these definitions in draft form and giving us a chance to look at them, particularly in the light of how they relate to the current obligations. An extraordinarily complicated addition to the mix is that of housing associations that are definitely charities and therefore covered by the next amendment, again adding complexity to complexity. At this point, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.