Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 26
74th Report - Environmental regulation
Published 25 Mar 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Environmental regulation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Planning and Infrastructure Act is a wide-ranging reform of the planning system, intended to accelerate housing delivery and remove barriers to infrastructure development across England. The Act introduces the Nature Restoration Levy, a mechanism which allows developers pay into to the Nature Restoration Fund to discharge their environmental obligations when building, housing and infrastructure developments affect protected sites or species.70 This is an optional fund: developers can choose to do site-specific environmental mitigation on their development.71
From: Public Accounts Committee, 74th Report - Environmental regulation (HC 1687), 25 March 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 June 2026 (deadline 25 May 2026).