Member

Amendment 170A seeks to allow the nature restoration levy regulations to impose a liability to pay into the nature restoration fund where the impact of development cannot be fully dealt with through the mitigation hierarchy. The existing scope of the levy regulations provisions already allows for different rates to be charged to reflect the varying impact of development. This will allow the levy to reflect where developers have taken action to reduce the impact of their development. However, should a developer choose to use the existing system, they would need to assess and address the full impact of their development through that system. As the legislation already accommodates the scenario envisaged by the amendment, I hope the noble Lord will feel able not to press it.