New clause 18 - Procedure for authorisation of compulsory purchase by authority other than a Minister
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
10:00 am
Ms Yvette Cooper (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Pontefract and Castleford, Labour)
I guess that if the landowner were sufficiently ingenious and determined to sub-let all kinds of corners of land, that would mean more people had the right to object; it could happen. However, there will be a limit to the time in which they might submit objections and—assuming that those will not be the cases that go to written procedures, as the intention will be to spin things out—there will be a public inquiry timetable, just as there is at the moment.
There is a limit to the additional problems that can be caused by the procedure, and they are counter-balanced by its increased fairness and the fact that it gives more people who are entitled the chance to have their objections heard. For those reasons, I believe that the new clauses are sensible and I welcome the broad support of the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.
Brought up, read the Second time, and added to the Bill.