Clause 1 - Regional Spatial Strategy
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
2:32 pm
Mr Matthew Green (Ludlow, Liberal Democrat)
I, too, welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Pike. I look forward to serving under your chairmanship.
I support the amendment. Although it deletes only two words, the more I read it, the more interesting it
becomes. ''However expressed'' could mean anything, for example, the Minister could change his policies for the region in response to a question from a journalist on regional television. The Minister will say that that is not what the Bill intends, but including those words leaves matters open to interpretation. The current Secretary of State might not choose to misuse the proposal, but there is a danger in leaving in law something that could be misused by a future Minister. I doubt that the Government want that to be part of their legacy. I am sure that the Minister will agree to some tightening of the measure, because as drafted it is somewhat open-ended.