The Nature Restoration Fund represents a significant reform for the housebuilding and digital construction sectors, aligning environmental recovery with accelerated housing delivery across England. Introduced through the Planning and Infrastructure Act, the Fund addresses long-standing challenges where protected habitats and species have delayed or prevented residential and infrastructure development, without delivering meaningful environmental improvement.
Historically, project-level mitigation requirements have created complexity, uncertainty, and delays for developers navigating planning consent. The Nature Restoration Fund provides an alternative mechanism, enabling developers to contribute financially to strategic environmental interventions rather than delivering fragmented mitigation measures on individual sites. This shift supports faster planning decisions while enabling nature restoration at a scale that individual developments cannot achieve alone.
Central to the Fund’s operation is the creation of Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs). Natural England will work with public bodies, environmental organisations, private markets, and developers to produce EDPs for defined geographic areas. Each plan will set out targeted conservation measures designed to address the cumulative impacts of development on protected sites and species. Where an EDP is in place, developers can make a payment into the Nature Restoration Fund, simplifying compliance with environmental regulations and improving delivery certainty for digitally enabled construction programmes.
An Implementation Plan published alongside the legislation outlines a clear pathway, with the first EDPs scheduled for delivery in 2026. Initial plans will focus on resolving development blockages caused by nutrient pollution affecting rivers, lakes, and estuaries—an issue that has significantly constrained housing delivery in several regions. Pooled developer contributions will be used for large-scale interventions such as wetland restoration, river improvement, and the creation of accessible green infrastructure.
Changing the planning system
Nature Minister Mary Creagh stated: “We are changing the broken planning system to ensure that we can deliver new homes and infrastructure while protecting and restoring nature. The Nature Restoration Fund will help restore our most treasured protected habitats and species whilst building the homes Britain needs.”
Natural England’s Chief Executive, Marian Spain, highlighted the strategic importance of the reform: “The Planning and Infrastructure Bill becoming law gives us the opportunity to build the homes and infrastructure our country needs while driving nature’s recovery. Thriving nature is essential for our nation’s growth, health and security.” She added that the Fund will “make it easier for developers to meet their obligations to protect sites and species by investing at scale in nature’s recovery.”
Each EDP must pass an Overall Improvement Test, demonstrating that conservation benefits materially outweigh development impacts. Natural England will formally notify Defra’s Secretary of State as plans are prepared, with conservation delivery sourced through open competition. This approach is expected to support nature markets, stimulate the green economy, and integrate more effectively with digital planning and construction workflows.
The Nature Restoration Fund underpins the government’s ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes and progress 150 major infrastructure decisions during this Parliament, positioning environmental recovery as an enabler rather than a barrier to growth.
By aligning planning reform, digital construction delivery, and strategic environmental investment, the Nature Restoration Fund offers England a framework to deliver homes faster and support nature recovery.
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