Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Baroness Neville-Rolfe Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 17th September 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

361A: Clause 110, page 152, line 25, after “and 6)”, insert “may not come until force until the Secretary of State has published the guidance in subsection (3A) and, following this, it”
Member’s explanatory statement
This probing amendment, connected with another in the name of Baroness Neville-Rolfe, seeks to prevent the commencement of provision on EDPs until guidance has been published setting out how any regulatory burdens on smaller developers and construction firms can be minimised.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

My Lords, I am honoured to speak, in the last group, to my Amendments 361A and 361B, on encouraging SME builders, and to Amendments 363 and 364, on mechanisms for encouraging the speedy rollout of planning reform. Amendment 275A, which I was unable to speak to this morning, belongs in a family with the first two amendments, and I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, for her comments in my absence. I am especially keen to improve the position of SMEs; it is a theme of many of my amendments to many Bills before the House of Lords.

My SME amendments follow a constructive discussion we had at one of the two Ministers’ helpful briefing sessions. My concern is that the new EDPs under Part 3 will further damage the position of smaller developers and construction firms, and I would like to see guidance provided to Natural England to head off that risk. I am afraid that neither the requirement to consider the viability of development in making regulations nor the tiering of the nature restoration levy by type of development quite does the trick.

We know from the trouble over nutrient neutrality just how religiously Natural England follows rules designed for nature protection at the expense of anything else. We need balance in relation to how it treats small developers and the smaller sites that developers need. The truth is that SMEs contribute so much to local communities and local employment and can do so much more in construction.

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As we come to the end of our deliberations on the Bill, I once again thank all noble Lords who have taken part. I look forward to being able to “build, baby, build”.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

My Lords, I thank those who have spoken from the Front Benches, and I thank the Minister for some of her reassurance. I will look carefully at Hansard. I do not think we are quite there on Natural England. There is the choice of the existing system, which has its problems, or the new system, which also has potential problems, so if we can make sure that SMEs have an easier time, that would be a great plus in the passage of the Bill.

In terms of commencement, obviously my amendments were exploratory, and I will not press them, but I look forward to better information on the NPSs, including the scheduling of when they will come forward as part of dissemination on the Bill. People need to understand the whole picture, as the Minister has acknowledged on a number of occasions. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment 361A withdrawn.