Contribution
My Lords, I am conscious that we spent a lot of time on the primary legislation trying to understand this, and I am not overly convinced that these regulations help. I have been carefully reading Commons Hansard, with Minister Matthew Pennycook explaining. Some things in there surprised me. It should be a matter of concern for the Government that, for example, the tech needed to undertake this whole process is still not ready, and it is unclear how this will move forward. I also share my noble friend Lord Roborough’s concerns. I had a response from the Defra Minister saying that the Secretary of State for Defra would be issuing the guidance on all these matters. It is accurate to say that Defra issued guidance, but it did so in conjunction with MHCLG. This comes back to some of the ongoing nervousness about who is really driving this. Is Defra just an add-on?
The reason I say that, in a different way, is that yesterday Minister Matthew Pennycook talked about wanting to make clear that the Government would protect developers who choose to use the NRL from unjustified costs. It is unclear to me who will determine which costs are unjustified. We know we are proceeding in a novel way in trying many years ahead to forecast how much the costs of these different EDPs are going to be, and there will be scrutiny of that.
I understand that the first EDP addresses nutrient neutrality in Norfolk. I would like to understand from the Minister why the consultation on the EDP is expected to last for only 28 days. That feels a very short time for the first ever of these models, and a considerable amount of effort will need to be put in to assess them. The other surprise is that that part of the country is one of the better areas for having got a green finance market going. This is undermining a lot of the issues that we face in trying to make these a success, so it would be useful to understand from the Minister why we are starting there. There are plenty of other places dealing with nutrient neutrality issues— I think of the Solent, parts of Somerset and the like—where there is not the same level of green finance market already under way.
I do not know whether it is the regulations or the primary legislation that allows the Secretary of State to change the levy rate at any time without notice, but I am trying to understand when that would be the case under these regulations and why that would not require any consultation. I was pleased to see Minister Matthew Pennycook say:
“In the case of the first EDP that we bring forward, it will be the DEFRA Secretary of State who makes the judgment on whether the EDP is to be made following consultation”.—[Official Report, Commons, Fifth Delegated Legislation Committee, 2/9/26; col. 9.]
Based on what was said in this Chamber, my hope and expectation was that the Secretary of State for Defra would make all the decisions on every EDP, not just on the first. As we embark on these novel ways of trying to improve nature—I respect that the Government are trying to do that—I would be grateful if the Minister could try to answer those questions.
There is another surprising element that is also surprising developers. I know that a developer can ask for several quotations—I think the word used is “quotes”—to understand what it might be getting into, but, in effect, once it has made its planning application and the commitment to pay, it is locked in. That is an interesting challenge. I know that Natural England, in trying to develop the EDP, will need some certainty on financing, but, bearing in mind what my noble friend has just referred to, confidence is not high.
The other issue, which I hope does not come through, is that in the primary legislation Natural England was able to delegate EDPs to anybody. Again, it is not clear how that bit is monitored and managed through these regulations, especially considering the 28-day consultation period.
There are many issues to raise, and I am sure that others will bring up various points. All I can say is that this does not feel as though it has made the whole process clearer; in fact, it has genuinely muddied the waters, particularly those around nutrient neutrality.