Clause 54 - Wales Spatial Plan
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 406, in
clause 54, page 39, line 16, at end insert—
'(1A) The Wales Spatial Plan must set out the Secretary of State's policies (however expressed) in relation to the development and use of land within the region'.
We now come to part 6 of the Bill. First, may I welcome the Under-Secretary of State for Wales? As my hon. Friend the Member for Spelthorne (Mr. Wilshire) quite rightly said, we fully understand that he has not been able to be present for the full duration of our consideration of the Bill. It would be unreasonable to expect that, but we welcome him here to look after the interests of the Welsh. We shall have an interesting debate this afternoon because, in many ways, we like the system proposed for Wales better than that proposed for England. It is simpler and it delivers more closely to the ground, with greater clarity.
However, we have tabled several amendments and new clauses to probe the Government's thinking on the inconsistency between the systems that they are introducing for England and Wales. After all, if one studies the population of this country—the Government's document ''Your Region, Your Choice'' has been very informative in giving me population figures—one finds that London contains 7.3 million people. The south-east contains 8.077 million people, 13 per cent. of the United Kingdom's population. The south-west contains 4.9 million, the
east midlands 4.1 million, the west midlands 5.3 million, the east of England 5.4 million, the north-west 6.8 million and Yorkshire 5.04 million. The only area where the figure is at all comparable to Wales is the north-east, which has 2.581 million people. The latest figure for Wales, unless the Minister can produce a more up-to-date one, shows a population of 2.946 million. That was the accurate figure for 2000.
Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.
On resuming—