Speeches by Pennycook.

“I would only emphasise what I have already said. The section 19 declaration is there on the front of the Bill. It is not routine for the Government to publish EPPSs. I had this in my own Select Committee the other day. I am always asked to be far more transparent than every previous Government, and just publish all our…”

“From my perspective, we have complied with the requirements of the Environment Act as they pertain to this piece of legislation.”

“The five principles in relation to this Bill?”

“The statement is on the front of the Bill, in terms of the obligations under the Act. The Government intends always to have environmental considerations at the heart of all policymaking. As you will be aware, Chair, we have not published an environmental principles policy statement—that is not routine practice—but envi…”

“I will characterise the approach, and I will say something about how we intend to help guide its application. The specific intent of a vision-led development for transport is to move away from this sub-optimal predict and provide approach, which too often provides for car-dependent development of the kind that we would…”

“A precise definition is in the glossary of the NPPF. I apologise if your Clerks suggested that question to you. It is there in black and white. As I said, it wants to move away from the historic approach—”

“They relate together. As we roll out new reforms like environmental delivery plans, we will be monitoring and carefully evaluating their impact to ensure they do. This hopefully answers part of your question, but we were encouraged to consider, for example, whether some of these strategies could be amalgamated. An exte…”

“I do not think it would be appropriate to characterise it like that. All of these policy strategies—NPPF, BNG, local nature recovery strategies, and, when they come forward under the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, environmental delivery plans—together put in place a more strategic approach to considering environment…”

“No, I do not have any particular worries about the way the presumption is operating. It is operating in the way that we intend it to operate. As I say, we are encouraging local authorities to get local development plans in place to give themselves a measure of protection against speculative development of that kind. I …”

“The very direct answer would be no. I had the chance to refine the presumption when we revised the NPPF back in December. It plays a critical role in ensuring development can come forward in some form where a local authority does not have an up-to-date plan in place and is not meeting its housing delivery target. If we…”

“I assume that it is in the presumption because it does not have an up-to-date local plan in place, and it is not meeting its housing delivery targets. My answer is that a system that is based on local development plans, and in which we have under a third up-to-date coverage, is not a system that is functioning well. We…”

“You will appreciate that I cannot comment on any specific planning applications for the obvious reason that Ministers have a quasi-judicial role in making some of them. My starting point in answering that question would be: why is your authority in the presumption?”

“I understand the point: that he would like to see that.”

“That is not something that the Government incorporated in their revised NPPF. I know that the Committee knows this, but just to put on the record, the NPPF is a high-level policy framework to guide planning decisions. It does not need to incorporate and copy in every other Act of Parliament or strategy. It has very cle…”

“As a Government Minister, I would define it precisely as it is defined in the national planning policy framework. Chapter 2 sets out a very clear definition of sustainable development, in that the planning system has three overarching objectives—economic, social and environmental—all of which are independent but must b…”

“Again, Ms Chowns, I think you are slightly misinterpreting how the nature restoration fund will work. It is not for developers—[Interruption.] If I could just finish the sentence, I will answer the question. It is not for developers to determine steps 1 and 2 under an EDP; Natural England will prepare the EDP. All that…”

“I would argue that we have not jettisoned it entirely—that is precisely my point.”

“I do not think that I could have been any clearer on this point. We are not going to remove the flexibility that the approach provides for in that regard. To do so would be to render the whole nature restoration fund inoperable in the way that we want to see it come forward. I appreciate that you take a principled and …”

“And the package of amendments that we have tabled, as I said, substantially allays their concerns.”

“We laboured over extensive debates in Committee, Chair, so in the interest of time, I just refer the Committee to those. Ms Chowns, you are well aware that the Bill is premised on Natural England having a degree of flexibility in how it applies the mitigation hierarchy. We would expect it to do so normally, but if it f…”