Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 10
1st Report – The role of natural capital in the UK's green economy
Published 7 May 2025
Environmental Audit Committee The role of natural capital in the green economy [revived] All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government should keep under review the effect of its fiscal policy on the availability of land for natural capital investment. In particular, the effect of the inclusion of environmental improvement schemes within the scope of APR relief from April 2025, combined with the changes to APR thresholds to be introduced in April 2026, ought to be monitored for their effects on the supply of land to environmental improvement projects. Care must be taken to ensure that fiscal policy provides appropriate incentives to deliver genuine ecosystem enhancements, rather than providing opportunities to shelter capital from tax obligations, and that it does not encourage the removal of prime land from food production in a way which compromises the UK’s food security. We recommend that the Government report to the House on the operation of APR relief in relation to environmental improvement schemes no later than three months from the end of the 2026–27 financial year. (Recommendation, Paragraph 64)
From: Environmental Audit Committee, 1st Report – The role of natural capital in the UK's green economy (HC 501), 7 May 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 22 July 2025 (deadline 7 July 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government thanks the Committee for its report and sets out, recommendation by recommendation, where it agrees, declines or will take further work, with several commitments to publish in 2025 and later.
- On the Committee's call for a report to the House on agricultural property relief, the government "does not agree" it should report within three months of the end of 2026-27. It cites a long data lag and says it will monitor reforms "in the normal way".
- On Biodiversity Net Gain, the government says it "continues to support BNG policy". It has launched two consultations, and BNG will be introduced for NSIPs "from May 2026".
- On an on-site BNG register, the government states that it does "not currently have plans to develop" one, noting that an off-site register already exists.
- On timings, it plans to publish 30by30 guidance and an action plan "later in 2025", and says the Land Use Framework "will be published later this year". Details on allocating BNG credit income will follow "in due course".