Member

Previously, the Minister smirked when I said that the Bill, with all its monopoly regulator and supplier functions, means that Natural England has effectively nationalised nature. I do not see anybody laughing now, because that is what we are sleepwalking into. A developer may need to pay twice for his mitigation—once for a private scheme close at hand that is acceptable to local people and the planning authority, and again because it is compulsory to purchase another one miles away. Whichever option is chosen, the very act of triggering the EDP process effectively sterilises that proposal and makes it harder to get Britain building.