Member

A central feature of the nature restoration fund is the overall improvement test. This requires that the conservation measures set out in an EDP must outweigh the negative effect of development on the environmental features to which the EDP applies. Any EDP that allowed irreparable harm to an environmental feature—be that a feature of a protected site or a population of a protected species—would be unable to satisfy the overall improvement test. If the overall improvement test would not be met, the Secretary of State would be unable to make an EDP.