Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the unit cost to developers of the Nature Restoration Fund for a new build house.

When it comes to development and the environment, we know we can do better than the status quo, which too often sees both sustainable housebuilding and nature recovery stall. Instead of environmental protections being seen as a barrier to growth, we want to unlock a win-win for the economy and for nature. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will introduce a new Nature Restoration Fund that will unlock and accelerate development while going beyond simply offsetting harm to unlock the positive impact development can have in driving nature recovery.

The government's intention is that the aggregate cost to developers of the Nature Restoration Levy will not be greater than the status quo. By taking a strategic approach to nature recovery, we can leverage economies of scale and reduce the need for costly project-level assessments to ensure every pound spent helps deliver on our environmental goals.

We are working with Regulatory Policy Committee to ensure that the Bill Impact Assessment and Committee’s opinion are published as soon as possible.