Planning Bill

If I did patronise the hon. Lady, I should be amazed if she noticed. However, I thank her for her intervention. Much of the debate is overshadowed by the public inquiry on terminal 5. There have been attempts to contrast that project with major infrastructure projects in other lands which, it is said, can be built and developed many times faster, but we are in danger of taking the wrong messages from the terminal 5 inquiry. It is not the system itself that is at fault, but a lack of precision that allows inquiries to wander off on matters beyond location and planning rules. An interesting ““compare and contrast”” exercise can be applied to the terminal 5 inquiry, conducted under the old rules, and the Stansted inquiry, conducted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Whatever the merits of the case, there can be no doubt that Stansted has made better progress, and that the new rules are an improvement. Given an effective and trusted framework of national policy statements and sensible pre-inquiry hearings to decide the major points at issue, the number of witnesses and the timetable, there is no reason why a reformed system should not resolve matters quickly.