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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to protect nature through the planning process.

The National Planning Policy Framework is clear about the importance of conserving and enhancing the natural environment.

Planning policies and decisions should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by minimising impacts on and providing net gains for biodiversity, including by establishing coherent ecological networks that are more resilient to current and future pressures and incorporating features which support priority or threatened species such as swifts, bats, and hedgehogs.

We are considering using a new suite of national policies for decision making, which we will be consulting on later this year, to require swift bricks to be incorporated into new buildings, unless there are compelling reasons that preclude their use or that would make them ineffective. As an interim step ahead of the planned consultation, we published updated Planning Practice Guidance setting out how swift bricks are expected to be used in new developments.

Under the new statutory framework for Biodiversity Net Gain, every grant of planning permission (subject to some exemptions) is subject to the condition that the development must deliver at least a 10% increase in biodiversity value relative to the pre-development biodiversity value of the onsite habitat.

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 barriers to growth, we want to unlock a win-win for the economy and for nature. Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduces a new Nature Restoration Fund that will unlock and accelerate development while going beyond neutrality to unlock the positive impact development can have in driving nature recovery.