Clause 44
Planning Bill
10:15 am
Jacqui Lait (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Beckenham, Conservative)
My difficulty is that if mitigation is agreed before the inquiry, it can be reported that there is mitigation and that issue will not be part of the inquiry. If the applicant has to say in what cases there is a potential for mitigation, that will absorb the time of the inquiry because it will open up the debate. If that can be closed down before the inquiry starts because it has been legally resolved, the inquiry will be speeded up. That is why mitigation is important in planning law in general, not just in the Bill.