The House of Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee launched an inquiry, ‘The role of natural capital in the green economy’, in August 2023.  The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery submitted a response, written by Dr Sophus zu Ermgassen.

Our submission proposed:

• An accelerated timetable to agree and implement independent evaluation systems (particularly on-site gains for BNG) to secure high-quality nature recovery, and to prevent problems arising from reliance on self-reported assessments alone,
• Government support for local authorities to pursue developers responsible for non-compliance. This would include provision long-term support for monitoring and enforcing planning conditions associated with nature recovery,
• For BNG, revision of the enforcement threshold from the currently unrealistically-high ‘serious harm to a local public amenity’ to a condition that is more closely aligned with nature recovery objectives; and
• Adoption of the guidance provided in the industry’s best practice guide and best practice Standards (e.g. British Standard 8683: 2021) a condition of planning consent for developments to assist with monitoring and to embed good practice.