Biodiversity Net Gain

Lord Cromwell Excerpts

Wednesday 6th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is referring, I assume, to the exemptions in place for applications that have no or a very limited impact on biodiversity. That was brought in to ensure proportionality and to keep the planning system moving. However, Defra is working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to review planning statistics and specific applications.

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

My Lords, I am currently involved in negotiating with a developer on biodiversity net gain. This involves boxes of huge and very expensive files, which have to be redone every time Defra changes the metric and locks the land into a commitment of 30-plus years. The developers tell me that their traditional landscaping required under planning often exceeded what is required under biodiversity net gain. Can the Minister give us any data on what real net gain is being achieved?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Clearly, this is still fairly new for planning applications. It came in only eight months ago, so we are considering how we move forward. I do not have data on that to hand, and I am not sure we would have it available at present, as it has been only about eight months, but I will check and get back to the noble Lord.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Yes, the Government have committed over £35 million in ring-fenced funding to local planning authorities to help them prepare for and implement biodiversity net gain. We have confirmed funding up to the end of next year and further funding will be in the next review.

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

As we have some time left, may I ask the Minister to look into why farmers in the higher-level environmental protection scheme—the HLS—are being excluded from joining the SFI scheme, both of which she will be familiar with? I have been asking Defra for months why Ministers are not being advised of this discriminatory approach and I have yet to receive an answer.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I am happy to go back to the department on this. We are going to open up the high-level applications next year, as I am sure the noble Lord is aware, and we are also looking at what we do with the legacy payments. I am happy to discuss this issue with him further, because we are making quite a lot of decisions on how we move forward.