Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 66A: 66A: Schedule 4, page 169, line 33, leave out paragraphs 16 to 27 The noble Lord said: I shall be brief because my questions are similar to those I have asked previously. Part 3 of Schedule 4 gives substantial powers to statutory undertakers following representations by them and the HCA to the Secretary of State. For example, paragraph 18 gives statutory undertakers powers, "““to acquire (whether compulsorily or by agreement) any land specified in the order””," and so on. On the face of it, this is draconian stuff which gives statutory undertakers the power to acquire land by compulsory purchase, for example. Why is this needed? How often has this power been used in the most recent period that the Government have figures for? No doubt they will tell us that this is just re-enacting legislation from 1993, 1990 or before then—perhaps going back to the New Towns Act 1946. Is such power needed now? In particular, on a lot of these matters we have to understand that the planning regime has changed enormously in the past 50 years. The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 very much filled a vacuum. In the past 60 years the planning system has developed and is now very comprehensive—some would say it was all embracing—and all sorts of plans exist at national, regional and local levels, and at county level in two-tier areas. Then there is all the planning guidance and planning statements and so on. The planning system was not so comprehensive in those days, yet all this old legislation is being re-enacted although it was designed for different circumstances in different times. My basis questions are: why do the Government think that this part of the schedule is needed, how often have such powers been used in living memory, and what are the Government’s intentions and expectations as to how often these powers might be required? Again, we have to ask ourselves: are they needed? I beg to move.