Member

I am going to sit down now and look forward to the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Khan of Burnley, rebuffing all the points I have made by talking about the disproportionate cost. I hope that he and others in this Chamber will be content when they look back in 20 or 30 years’ time to see what will come out of the Bill, if it is to be enacted without addressing some of the issues that I and others have raised in trying to put a presumption in favour of burying power lines and making the operators argue why they should not be there. That is all we are asking in this probing amendment: to switch the emphasis and get them to explain why they cannot do it and why it is disproportionate. In that small way, the Minister will find that the public will be more on side than they are at the moment.