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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Environmental Development Plans proposed in Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will be required to follow the mitigation hierarchy.

Environmental Development Plans will provide the flexibility to diverge from project-by-project mitigation and a restrictive application of the mitigation hierarchy.

However, this will only be where Natural England consider that this would deliver better outcomes for nature over the course of the delivery plan.

An Environmental Development Plan can only be put in place where Natural England and the Secretary of State are satisfied that the delivery of conservation measures will outweigh the negative effects of development.