Member

Let us get this right. The quango the Government tell us could be trusted to get Britain building again is exposed as a blocker, not a builder—not as a matter of opinion but as a matter of law. That is not to say that there should be no regulation at all—in fact, quite the reverse. We on these Benches believe strongly that Ramsar sites should be protected, as they currently are in government policy under paragraph 194 of the National Planning Policy Framework, subject to the ordinary principles of planning law. It is just that this organisation, which will simultaneously be the adviser, regulator, operator, price-setter, enforcer and promoter of all the EDPs being contemplated by Part 3 of this Bill, is making a complete Horlicks of it again. Tens of thousands of homes, quite unnecessarily and wrongly, have been held up and fewer affordable homes have been built, especially in the rural communities that need them most, because Natural England lacked the competence and professionalism properly to read, interpret and advise Ministers on the regulations.