Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether funds given to the proposed national Nature Restoration Fund will be allocated to the county where the development they are offsetting takes place.

The details of how the Nature Restoration Fund will operate are being worked through in preparation for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Our working paper on development and nature recovery was published last December. This noted that in addressing environmental impacts from development more strategically, and at an appropriate geographic scale, we also needed to recognise the importance of protecting local communities’ access to nature and green space.