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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the nature mitigation mechanisms in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on the use of bat tunnels in new developments.

The government is confident that the Nature Restoration Fund proposed in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill provides a mechanism to avoid the kind of expensive intervention epitomised by the Sheephouse Wood Bat Protection Structure and instead drive meaningful outcomes for nature at the right scale.