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In 2023, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson bemoaned the United Kingdom's "newt-counting" sclerotic planning system for holding up the development of a swimming pool at his Oxfordshire retreat as a "drag on prosperity."
In 2024, Environment Secretary Steve Reed railed against the £119 million cost of a so-called "bat tunnel" supposedly holding up the Government's flagship HS2 rail project.
In an attempt to respond to these and other long-term concerns about nature restoration obligations disproportionately impacting much-needed development, the Government has introduced a new Nature Restoration Levy ("NRL")aimed at loosening restrictions on developers.
The Planning and Infrastructure Act became law on 18 December 2025 and includes provisions to set up a Nature Restoration Fund ("NRF")across England and Wales, into which proceeds from the NRL will be paid and nature conservation projects funded.
The NRF will allow developers to avoid certain project-specific nature conservation obligations provided they pay a levy into a national NRF. We explain below how this will work.
1. Environmental Delivery Plans and the NRF
The current system is perceived as flawed because it fails to take a strategic approach to nature protection. So, instead of placing unnecessary burdens on individual developers in the context of specific projects, plans will be drawn up for conserving nature in protected sites or species on a wider scale, to which developers will contribute. These Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) will:
- Define the "environmental features" of a protected site or protected species covered by the EDP;
- Set out the adverse environmental impacts of particular kinds of development on those environmental features;
- Set maximum levels of development covered by the EDP;
- Summarise the cost and form of nature conservation; and
- Set the levy.
Developers can then choose either to pay the levy (assuming their proposed development falls within the type and size of development contemplated in the EDP, as well as the potential adverse impact) or proceed as they otherwise would, with site-specific investigations and obligations.
If they elect to pay the levy then the EDP will set out which obligations they will then be exempt from complying with, for example, obtaining various licences in respect of protected species, carrying out a Habitats Assessment as part of the planning process, disapplication of certain planning conditions, etc.
EDPs will be prepared by Natural England and submitted to the Secretary of State for approval. A draft EDP will go through a minimum 28-day public consultation. In considering whether to approve a draft EDP, the Secretary of State will have regard to whether the effects of the proposed conservation measures will materially outweigh the negative effects of development on the conservation status of each identified environmental feature by the EDP end date. EDPs will last up to 10 years and can be challenged in the courts within six months of their publication.
2. Developer Obligations
Once an EDP is in effect, developers will be able to use an online platform to obtain an estimate of the levy they would need to pay if they used the EDP/NRF route. The developer can then consider whether this is preferable to the site-specific route. Once planning permission is granted, the developer is obliged to pay the NRL.
It should be noted that secondary legislation will be published in the summer of 2026, setting out when the levy has to be paid (including if it can be phased), by whom (e.g. which parties can assume liability), and the offences and civil penalties to be applied in the event of non-payment.
It should also be noted that the NRL doesnotrelieve any developer from its obligations with regard to biodiversity net gain ("BNG"). BNG requires any development site to improve biodiversity value by a minimum of 10% as measured under published guidelines or purchase credits to offset the failure to do so.
3. Next Steps
The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 sets out the core legal framework for EDPs and the NRF. Secondary legislation is needed both to set out the details of how the levy will be charged and so-called "prioritisation regulations;" that is to say, the sequencing of publication of EDPs for particular "environmental features."
The Government has indicated that first priority will be given to developers' obligations related to nutrient reliability, that is, the impact of development on the nutrient potential of protected catchment areas.
Key to the success of the NRF will be the speed of delivery of EDPs, whether these are held up in the courts in challenges launched by environmental pressure groups and, of course, the rates payable under the various EDPs.
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