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

To ask His Majesty's Government what further steps they are taking to improve biodiversity and nature inside the green belt.

This Government is committed to improving biodiversity across the country, including within the Green Belt. The Government’s intention is for Green Belts to provide multiple benefits, including nature recovery and increased public access to nature.

Local nature recovery strategies (LNRS) are being prepared across England. The LNRS statutory guidance states that if a responsible authority has Green Belt in their area, they should actively seek to target proposed actions for nature recovery inside it.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Defra are working together to improve planning policy following the consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework. This includes proposals for ‘golden rules’ for development in the Green Belt to deliver greener development which enhances nature and supports communities.

One of the Government’s key mechanisms to disincentivise harm to nature, including in the Green Belt, is biodiversity net gain, a new planning condition whereby habitats which are lost or degraded by development must be compensated for by enhancing or creating habitats that are of greater value to wildlife.