L

Lord Pannick (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 15 September 2025

Debate

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Contribution

My Lords, I too have added my name to the amendment. As the noble Lord, Lord Grabiner, has just mentioned, the Supreme Court concluded its judgment by recognising that it would leave a “rather messy situation”. This amendment gives Parliament the opportunity to clear up that mess. The mischief that the noble Lord, Lord Banner, explained is impeding many developments up and down the country, not least the plans of the All England Lawn Tennis Club to expand its facilities at Wimbledon—a much-needed development that will enable the club to better perform its functions of national and, indeed, international importance. It is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lords, Lord Banner and Lord Grabiner, in relation to this development; they are a formidable doubles team. I will just add a few points. The first point I want to emphasise is that the law already provides that, if the local authority complies with the statutory requirements and properly advertises the sale, the purchaser takes the land free from the trust. See Section 123 of the Local Government Act and paragraph 102 of the Supreme Court judgment. There is no question of the trust being sacrosanct in law.

More from Lord Pannick (CB)

Other recent Hansard contributions by the same speaker.

About Hansard

Hansard is the official verbatim record of proceedings in the UK Parliament. Every word spoken in the Commons and Lords is recorded and published — this page is a single contribution from that record.

Partner sites