Lord Roborough (Con)

It is clear from the amendments in this group that there is broad consensus across the Committee on a number of key principles in the use and governance of the nature restoration fund’s levy. The first is transparency, the second is fairness and the third is value for money. The fourth is my noble friend Lord Gascoigne’s point that the funds should stay local, as far as possible. We discussed, in a previous group, the implications of that for the BNG market. Frankly, I agree with all the amendments. The Minister has given us a very comprehensive answer to the amendments, which was helpful. There was definitely some reassurance in there about the potential for ring-fencing the NRF; I will take those away and study them further, but I suspect this might be something that we return to on Report. I think the Committee is concerned that this could become a slush fund. We know from the water restoration fund how resistant the Treasury is to the hypothecation of funds and how keen it is to get hold of penalties to the water industry and so on. We do not want to see this turning into a slush fund used to acquire land at will by Natural England, spent on bureaucracy or even returned to the Treasury. For now, I will withdraw my amendment, but I would very much like to return to this.