Growth and Infrastructure Bill
Debate between Lord Judd and Lord Tyler
Lord Judd
My Lords, I warmly endorse this amendment and thank the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, for introducing it. Across the whole history of legislation, I am afraid there is far too much evidence that codes and the like, without statutory authority, become useless in time. We have to remember—and we all pay tribute to the present Minister—that once new legislation is there, we are not necessarily going to be dealing with people like the current Minister. We cannot be certain who we will be dealing with. The current Minister is determined, and I am sure she means every word she says, that these things will be used to ensure what we all treasure about the parks, and so on. However, when she is gone, who will there be? I suggest to her that there are people with whom she must deal at the moment in her own Government who do not see it quite as she does. They have quite different thoughts about what this wonderful land might be used for. It is therefore really important to give the codes statutory authority.
As a vice-president of the Campaign for National Parks and as a patron of the Friends of the Lake District, I might say that the people who are, with their quality and commitment, turning concern into practical reality in all that they do to further the parks and the rest are deeply disturbed at the dangers that are there. They are not questioning the current Minister’s good intent but asking, “Where are the guarantees that these things that are being said in good will will actually be there for all to observe in future?”. Is this going to be another of those occasions on which we satisfy our own public profile by saying, “Well, we have this code”, or do we really mean what the code says? If we really mean it, let us for goodness’ sake make certain that it has the authority of the law behind it. This amendment is very important indeed.
Lord Tyler
My Lords, I strongly support my noble friend Lady Parminter. I should say that in the past I was vice-chair of a national park committee and therefore hold very dearly the responsibilities of the wider public within the national parks for their effective preservation and conservation in the national interest. I would also emphasise that there are many SMEs in national parks that will benefit from the extension of these very important communication facilities. However, there is a real urgency to have real clarity in the new regime to make sure that there is proper co-ordination between those who are going to provide for these new facilities along with the existing undertakings.
From my previous experience of seeing how the statutory undertakings, before they were privatised, never really got to grips with the need for co-ordination, the point that my noble friend made just now—about making sure that those who provide the new facilities are also properly co-ordinated with those who have responsibility, for example, for improving energy supplies—is absolutely critical. Otherwise we would have the ridiculous situation of upheaval and then renewed upheaval as the new undertakings take over. The equal need for greater clarity, to which my noble friend just referred, is extremely important, because otherwise we will have a very confused situation.
There is such urgency for this that I hope my noble friend the Minister will be able to give us an undertaking that preparatory work is well in hand to ensure that all the issues to which my noble friend referred are already being carefully examined. I am sure that all the communities within the national parks, and those who have concerns about the future of the national parks outwith them, will be met in the next few weeks and not be left with many months of consultation and revision before we see a final result.