Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 34
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)
To achieve success in nature markets, the Government must produce the full suite of documents that will be fundamental to its success, including the Land Use Framework, the Government responses to the consultations on a UK Green Taxonomy and on raising integrity in voluntary carbon and nature markets, rules on the stacking and bundling of natural capital assets, and fulfilment of the remaining commitments made in the Nature Markets Framework 2023. Should it not have published these documents by the time of its response to this report, the Government should set out a timeline for the publication of each. Nature restoration schemes and policies must be designed to deliver long term assurance to investors. As far as possible, domestic policies should align with recognised international standards, for example using the approach of the International Sustainability Standards Board. (Recommendation, Paragraph 169)
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".