Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 27
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)
Defra told us that the Nature Restoration Fund is an innovative solution which will unblock developments and also deliver better outcomes for nature.72 It explained that the Fund will allow it to take a wider view of actions it can take to restore nature, rather than the current site-specific solutions which may not benefit the economy or nature as well as they could. Defra told us this approach will be faster and more certain for developers, and the pooling of money from developments allow it to do more ambitious restoration or protection of the environment.73
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).