Member

The Minister very kindly arranged for me to sit down with staff from Natural England. They walked through the steps in the new EDP process, including gathering of evidence; development of the EDP; calculation of the levy; recruitment of partners for delivery; acquisition of land, if necessary, including—in rare instances—compulsory purchase; the consultation process; submission to the Secretary of State for the improvement test; publication of the EDP; application of planning requirements for the developer; and implementation, including any features of the EDP that were necessary before the developer could develop. This is not a simple or short process. It would be useful if the Minister could give the House an idea of the approximate elapsed time envisaged, from a twinkle in somebody’s eye that an EDP might be an option to the developer being able to put houses on the ground.