May I associate myself with the comments made by my hon. Friends the Members for Northampton, South and for Wimbledon? There is likely to be a new regime on large-scale planning applications which the Government will wish to push through Parliament, and I do not want to prejudge the nature of the debate both in the House of Commons and in another place. However, I have some sympathy with the Government’s view that some large-scale developments, whether Crossrail, airport expansion or nuclear power sites, are vital construction projects, and we simply cannot allow the long public inquiries and enormous delays that affected similar developments in recent decades.

Obviously, one of the great difficulties is that we have a culture in the House that gives individuals the right to have their say. There is also a process of legal and  sub-judicial inquiry. One of the attractive aspects of the French scheme—I accept that France has a completely different legal system—is the notion that certain projects are in the national interest. Of course, the flip side is that individuals who suffer receive compensation, no questions asked. In the case of Crossrail, that would be residents who live nearby.

The amendment, which I hope is helpful, at least begins to point in the direction in which I suspect the Government want to go with projects such as Crossrail. In other words, they wish to streamline the entire planning system, and I have some sympathy with that view. Clearly, we need to seek out precisely what is intended and we have always had an eye towards local opinion forming. However, the other side of that equation must surely be that those individuals whose rights are subverted in some way qualify immediately for compensation. The amendment, I hope, would at least provide a step towards that—a template that the Government must look at to ensure the balance between the protection of local desires, needs and rights and the broad interests of the country.

There is no doubt that the broad interests of London, the south-east and, indeed, the country require that Crossrail be built rapidly and to high specification, and that it be up and running at the earliest stage. However, there is little doubt that the lives of hundreds of thousands of people will be inconvenienced. In relation to clause 32, we are really discussing the extent to which the Secretary of State will take powers beyond those envisaged in the Bill. Those individuals who suffer should be fully compensated for whatever rights they have to forego in the public interest.

I hope that the Minister will give serious consideration to that point, even if he feels that the wording of the amendment is not quite right, because we need to get this important debate right if we are to ensure that the large-scale construction projects to which the House will be committed in the coming decades are built properly and to specification, but in a way that minimises the dissatisfaction of the many people who will suffer as a result.