Nature Restoration Fund NRF

The Nature Restoration Fund NRF "is proposed in Part Three of the Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill (see below). It is designed to support environmental conservation efforts in England, through strategic nature restoration projects. Developers pay into a NRF with the aim of offsetting the environmental impacts of their projects. This is a new approach for developers to meet their environmental obligations, allowing them to make payments into the fund instead of directly mitigating impacts on-site. NRF funds are used to deliver measures outlined in EDPs." Environmental Audit Committee. Environmental sustainability and housing growth: Sixth Report of Session 2024–26 HC 439

On 18 December 2025 the government published the Policy paper "Implementing the Nature Restoration Fund" which describes the three phase approach of the planned Nature Restoration Fund NRF implementation, making use of Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) as being:

Phase 1: Creating an EDP: Natural England drafts Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) for development impacts on protected species/sites in specific areas, detailing features, impacts, maps, supported development scale, conservation measures, species licences, and developer charges. After 28+ days of public consultation, the Secretary of State approves an EDP only if its measures outweigh negative effects by the plan's end.

Phase 2: Using an EDP: Developers can use an online platform to estimate the levy for an approved Environmental Delivery Plan (EDP), which is mostly voluntary but can be made mandatory by the Secretary of State in exceptional cases. Once Natural England approves inclusion, developers may rely on the EDP in planning applications instead of individual habitats assessments or species licences. After planning approval commits them to pay the levy per the charging schedule (e.g., at development start), local authorities apply the EDP's planning conditions, working with Natural England as needed, while Natural England tenders conservation measures to partners.

Phase 3: Reporting and monitoring: Natural England will monitor EDP conservation measures throughout their duration via annual organisational reports on NRF progress and EDP-specific reports at mid-and end-points to confirm they deliver desired outcomes and outweigh development impacts, deploying backup measures if needed. Maintenance and monitoring may extend beyond the EDP end-date as required, while the Secretary of State can amend EDPs to ensure the overall improvement test is met and must publish a statement with remedial actions if it is not achieved or if the EDP is revoked.

The core legal framework to deliver the NRF is contained within the Planning and Infrastructure Act. However, secondary legislation (in the form of regulations) will add further detail to some provisions and to give full effect to the Act’s measures, which includes: Levy regulations setting out operation and schedules of the charges paid by developers for each EDP and Prioritisation regulations setting our prioritisation of the different ways of addressing a negative effect of development on a protected species, or on a protected feature of a protected site.

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