Speeches by Creagh.

“I thank the hon. Lady for campaigning on climate and nature issues, in stark contrast with the Conservatives. I know that she will raise this issue during today’s debate. The nature restoration fund, which is a key plank of the Bill, will improve outcomes for nature, while unlocking the housing and infrastructure that …”

“It is a pleasure to speak under your chairship today, Ms Lewell. I commend the right hon. Member for Tatton (Esther McVey) for securing this debate, and thank other hon. Members for their thoughtful contributions. Let me begin by saying how incredibly sorry and sad I am to hear about Mr Hall’s death. I offer my profoun…”

“Of course, the hon. Member’s area is benefiting, under this Government, from the first national forest to be planted for 30 years. The Western forest will stretch from the Mendip hills up to Bristol, Gloucester—for the flood prevention—and the Forest of Dean, so there will be a huge increase. [Interruption.] She has qu…”

“The right hon. Lady is correct to bring me back to my conclusion. We have got five minutes, so I had a little tour via the Western Forest. On the point about 13% coverage, we are trying to get to 16% over the country by 2050. That has been a cross-party agreement under the Climate Change Act 2008 on the number of trees…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Betts. I congratulate the hon. Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo) on securing this debate on an important issue. I recognise his long-standing interest in the Thames Path, which runs through his constituency, and his assiduous representation of his consti…”

“I pay tribute to that section. I have not been to that part of the path but I opened a section of the coastal path in 2011 or 2012, when, sadly, no Minister from the coalition Government could be found to make the journey to Dorset. I was asked as the shadow Secretary of State, and was happy to walk up and down—a lot o…”

“The hon. Lady raises an excellent point. Making sure we are resilient to a rapidly changing climate with warmer, wetter winters and hotter, dryer summers is important for not just food and water security, but all infrastructure, including our roads and bridges. With the flooding in Tadcaster, we saw what happens when a…”

“I will start with that, as LNRSs are in my purview. They are a new system of spatial strategies for nature recovery and the environment. Some are already in place; they are being developed across England at the moment, and we expect to have the majority of them published by the end of 2025 or shortly afterwards, to hel…”

“I think until EDPs are in place, developers should continue to secure nutrient mitigation, get their planning consents and progress their building. We continue to support mitigation schemes and are clear that mitigation and, most important, nature recovery need to go hand in hand with development. There is a role for p…”

“The reason that nutrient neutrality was included is that that is where it has already happened—that and, I think, great crested newts. You start with what you know. The legislation allows EDPs to be put in place to address relevant environmental impacts. Natural England will set out a package of conservation measures s…”

“Well, yes, but we would not necessarily have started from here. We had an incredibly ambitious timetable—rightly, in my view—to proceed with our goal of 1.5 million homes. These policies have developed in parallel, but as Minister Pennycook has set out, there is a view that we could have waited five years and had a per…”

“The national planning policy framework and the land use framework, which we have just consulted on, are going to work hand in hand to support local planning authorities with their housing delivery, while making sure that we meet our environmental and climate change goals. I think having that framework is going to help …”

“May I just say one final thing about BNG? One of the issues that it has thrown up in its first year of working is that on brownfield sites there are what are called open mosaic habitat sites. That could be some old car park, or an area where there was some old building, that you and I would class as scrubland but over …”

“That is right. In our consultation, we are looking at how we can streamline the small sites metric, so that it is easier and quicker to complete the calculation to meet the BNG requirement. This is about having flexibility and easing costs for developers, while broadly maintaining environmental outcomes.”

“I do not. I think it needs refinement, which is why there is a consultation, but I believe that it is a really important tool. It is about creating better quality homes—better for people, better for communities, and better for species like swifts, bats and hedgehogs.”

“I am reassured, because we have biodiversity net gain applying to all but the very smallest developments. The Environment Act introduced BNG in 2024 and, subject to some very small exceptions, this is a world-leading initiative that enables nature-positive development. The facts of BNG are that development leaves biodi…”

“I think what we are trying to do is get beyond the divisive rhetoric of saying that it is either nature protection or house building, and achieve a win-win for nature and for the homes that we so desperately need. Frustration at the current system, which we heard eloquently expressed by Minister Pennycook today, can so…”

“I am 100% committed to the protection and restoration of nature in this country. The Government are committed to protecting and restoring nature, while building the homes that we need. I cannot comment on what Government spokespeople do or do not say, but I would say that they do not reflect the view of the Ministers w…”

“I think you need a Socratic dialogue. We have had meetings where we have gone in with differing opinions, and we have come out and developed a way forward. I would say that our officials have been working incredibly closely together, including during the passage of the Bill as it made its way through the Commons. No Bi…”

“When it comes to the nature restoration fund, and colleagues should please step in if I am wrong, it is about Natural England making those nature restoration funds on the basis of evidence. Dr Chowns has gone, but I think there will be ecological assessments; I do not see how you could do it scientifically without them…”