Member

It matters because, when the amount of land that is being allocated to homes is not reaching the density that was expected, for a variety of reasons, we therefore have to keep allocating even more land. This is a cumulative effect, reflecting the comments I made earlier about the fact that a lot of land is already allocated to homes that have not yet been built, but have consent. One of the reasons I have stayed an extra hour and a half is to make this point about spatial development strategies. I appreciate that we have not quite finished debating this: it is the one clause in the entire Bill that actually got substantial debate in the House of Commons—nearly four hours, and I can assure the Committee that that is unprecedented nowadays in the Commons. It is vital that we get to the bottom of this, because I am afraid that, even at the other end, the Minister was not as forthcoming as was perhaps wanted, which is reflected in the variety of amendments we have today.