Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Farrington, for digging me out of the hole I had got into by speaking only to the first amendment. My name is attached to Amendment No. 50 because, especially for the most deeply rural communities, there will be many occasions on which that power and duty of Natural England’s needs to be strengthened. Because of their remoteness, they will have a lot more to do with Natural England; we have frequently rehearsed the issues of sparsity, and I will not do so now. The sort of wording in Amendment No. 50 is important for the agency. I move on to Amendment No. 52. I have to admit that I have tussled hard with the issue, and listened carefully in Committee to the arguments. I have a lot of sympathy with the ““jewels in our crown”” argument of the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone. However, I arrive at the difficulty that some areas have an awful lot of jewels—they tend to be concentrated into some areas. That is fantastic for those areas, but it means that the chances for any social and economic development will be massively reduced. There is no perfect answer to that. It is virtually a free-vote issue, if it comes to a vote. It is not an issue on which one can align oneself except by one’s own best judgment; I certainly do not see it as party political. On it, we should leave Natural England the freedom to assess every case on its merits. I am sure that every difficult case will be difficult to assess, and the quality of Natural England’s board will very much be reflected by its ability to tussle with such difficult issues. I do not believe that we can legislate on the matter, much as we might like to safeguard the environmental future of our countryside and environment. Therefore, I will not be able to support Amendment No. 52.