Speeches by Pennycook.

“I will take your question in two parts. It is worth saying that the impact assessment is a proportionate assessment of the impacts of part 3 and other parts of the Bill from readily available data. There is limited data in this area, but although we would love to have more, there is enough. Nutrient neutrality is used …”

“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…”

“They are set out clearly in the Bill. You will have noted the very specific amendment on the overall improvement test that we made in the package released last week to insert the word “materially”, so the conservation measures must be materially significant. The overall improvement test is a test that the Secretary of …”

“I cannot comment on advice that I have not seen.”

“It is for the Government to make the statement that they feel it is compliant.”

“The NPPF contains a number of things in terms of climate policy, climate mitigation and adaptation. The embodied carbon intensity of building materials comes from the whole supply chain. I know the Committee will understand that the action is therefore Government-wide in that respect to decarbonise supply chains and cr…”

“As I have said, we recognise that embodied carbon can account for a significant proportion of a building’s whole-life carbon emissions, and that managing not only carbon emissions but carbon storage is vital to mitigating the speed and impact of climate change. On the planning side of things, we went out to consultatio…”

“On future standards, we will obviously consult on those later this year. In terms of embodied carbon, very specifically, as I said, we think the appropriate way forward is to update the relevant PPG. That is not only to assist local authorities in considering carbon emissions within the plan-making process, but to supp…”

“We will split this up, Chair, if that is amenable to you, perhaps with Minister Creagh taking ecology; I will specifically speak to construction and planning. As I have said from the moment I was appointed, there are a series of very significant constraints, or challenges, that we need to overcome in significantly boos…”

“There is a specific DEFRA funding commitment, which I will let Minister Creagh speak to, and it is incredibly welcome from our point of view. The measures that I would highlight most in allowing local authorities to fill those skills gaps are the measures in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that allow local authori…”

“I think you are referring to the challenge—and it is a challenge—of the absorption rate that we are partly constrained by. I have never been shy about saying that we are over-reliant on a speculative development model that constrains housing supply and drives sub-optimal outcomes—I am very clear on that point. We want …”

“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…”

“We accept that in some respects there will be impacts. In the round is the important point, because again—I emphasise—we are moving to a strategic approach, which needs to deliver overall environmental improvements across a wider area, not on a site-by-site specific basis. That is how we get the win-win. I appreciate t…”

“I can happily read you the quote, Ms Chowns: “even after the material amendments the Government proposes, the Bill would, in some respects, lower environmental protection on the face of the law. In the round, however, the additional safeguards proposed today make Government’s intended ‘win-win’ for nature and the econo…”

“Again, I would not necessarily agree with your characterisation of what I said.”

“As I said—to re-emphasise my previous point—it is for Natural England to make a judgment, across the EDP area, on the basis of scientific evidence. I refer to some of the amendments that I have already spoken about.”

“I am more than happy to. There is the £14 million it has been allocated to start things up and the fact that the scheme runs on a cost recovery basis as it begins to get up and running. We can go into all of the resourcing questions, but at the heart of who we are asking to make these judgments about what the appropria…”

“The negative effect in what respect?”

“The requirement is that Natural England brings forward environmental delivery plans that will meet the overall improvement test. My assertion is that they would not put that in front of the Secretary of State if they were not confident that it would do so.”