Member

I am also concerned about the whole question of the environment. We have a situation where, despite the Minister saying the Government will ensure that EDPs are only used where they can be shown to deliver for the environment, no one—whether developer or conservationist—knows what features EDPs will apply to. From the perspective of halting biodiversity loss and restoring it, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that the mitigation hierarchy will not apply to EDPs. Of course, that causes all the concerns that will be debated in later groups. It is not just me saying this. The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, for example, said that the sweeping approach proposed in Part 3 is causing “considerable uncertainty” for developers as to which environmental areas EDPs will be applied.