Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 32
6th Report - Environmental sustainability and housing growth
Published 16 Nov 2025
Environmental Audit Committee Environmental sustainability and housing growth All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
While the Government has completed its consultation on new exemptions to BNG, additional exemptions must not undermine the effectiveness of the policy, ecosystem integrity, or the establishment of the BNG credit market. Entire exemptions from BNG for small sites would undermine the policy. The Government should not exempt all small sites, but consider minor alterations, to ensure that the effectiveness of the policy is maintained. We reiterate our recommendation in paragraph 124 of our report on The Role of Natural Capital in the UK’s Green Economy. The Government should wait at least three years before making any substantial changes to BNG, as this could be viewed as a watering down of ambition. (Recommendation, Paragraph 116)
From: Environmental Audit Committee, 6th Report - Environmental sustainability and housing growth (HC 439), 16 November 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 March 2026 (deadline 16 January 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's inquiry and says it will "continue to implement our reforms to maintain environmental protection while accelerating housing growth", responding to each of the 39 recommendations in turn.
- On the presumption in favour of sustainable development, the Government is consulting on changes within the wider NPPF consultation published on 16 December 2025, and says it "will consider the responses received" before finalising a revised Framework.
- On whole-life carbon assessments, the Government "is not currently considering adopting the RICS methodology" as the UK industry standard, but will "keep it under review". It intends to "maintain a voluntary approach" to carbon accounting rather than mandate it.
- On ecological resource hubs, the Government agrees that ecological expertise is critical but does not consider separate hubs "currently necessary", and says it will keep this under review. It also states it has "no plans" for mandatory ecology and carbon training in planning qualifications.
- On taxation, the Government says it "does not plan to review council tax on the basis of embodied carbon". On VAT, it states that the Chancellor is responsible for decisions on tax policy, taken at fiscal events.