Speeches by Hinchliff.

“Okay, but as a recommendation that this Committee might make, it sounds like you are suggesting that clarity on the rationale behind the Farming Recovery Fund would be very helpful.”

“Thank you. A final question from me to anyone on the panel who might like to answer. Are there any steps you would like to recommend should be taken to better support farmers who are hosting floodwater storage services or other flooding assets?”

“The Government have launched a consultation on the development of their land use framework to consider the significant land use change and competing demands on our finite land that we have to meet key Government objectives. Can I ask all of you across the panel what you would hope to see in the land use framework from …”

“Ms Hallos, I am particularly interested to know from you whether you also perhaps have any recommendations around approaches that could be possible to encourage multifunctional land use of agricultural land being turned over to flood resilience.”

“As a farmer yourself, do you have any recommendations for approaches that the Government should be considering for multifunctional land use between farming and flooding?”

“Of course, absolutely. A final question: Ms Davis, are you confident that considerations of flooding within the land use framework will effectively feed through into local planning policies?”

“Anyone else?”

“Would you be able to either suggest now or write to us with recommendations for how that transition could be improved? Speed?”

“What is the reason why they cannot access that?”

“Yes. What further steps could be taken to better support farmers who are hosting floodwater storage services or other flooding assets?”

“Ms Davis, anything to add? No.”

“We have heard quite a few suggestions already of ways in which this policy could be tweaked or amended. Will my hon. Friend join me in urging the Minister to get Treasury officials to at least model some of those changes, to help to advance the debate in the coming months?”

“Presumably that in itself is part of the resourcing problem, that there are not enough people to share the workload.”

“Thank you very much. Again, it might be useful to have some further written detail on some of those points. I am sure we could talk about it for a long time. Does anyone else on the panel want to comment?”

“Can I just drill down a little bit further into that? There were two recommendations there from across the panel on strategic identification of the least sensitive sites. Where do you think the responsibility for that should lie? How do you see that being incorporated into our current ways of working at the local autho…”

“It should happen within the local planning process, yes, development.”

“A similar point: we have heard some debate during this inquiry around the proposals for grey belt. I wondered, as ecologists, what your thoughts were on that because I know I have seen in the press some debate back and forth about, “Scrubland is ugly” versus, “It is biodiverse”. Thoughts on that?”

“Do you have concerns about the concept of scrub being identified as grey belt?”

“Brilliant. My final question: would anyone on the panel like to comment on whether the recent changes to the NPPF may make it less likely that environmental policies will be adequately implemented and enforced at the local authority level?”

“We are aware that one in four local planning authorities do not have any access to ecological expertise. Ms Postlethwaite to start with: what do you think needs to change to improve the implementation and enforcement of environmental policies alongside the rapid delivery of 1.5 million new homes?”