If you’ve had a housing scheme stuck in a protected catchment, this one’s worth two minutes. On 18 June 2026 the government laid the first two pieces of secondary legislation for the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) before Parliament — the machinery that’s meant to give developers a simpler way to deal with nutrient pollution than the site-by-site mitigation we’ve all been wrestling with (Defra Environment blog, 19 June 2026).
What actually got laid
Two sets of regulations, both now on the statute books in draft:
- The Nature Restoration Levy Regulations 2026 — the framework for how the nature restoration levy will work, i.e. the route by which developers will eventually be able to discharge certain environmental obligations with a payment. (legislation.gov.uk)
- The Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026 — how Natural England must prioritise different “conservation measures” when it writes an Environmental Delivery Plan, honouring the mitigation hierarchy commitment made during the Bill’s passage. These regulations came into force on 9 July 2026. (legislation.gov.uk)
Both flow from the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, which got Royal Assent in December 2025 and created the NRF in the first place.
How the NRF is meant to work
The idea is straightforward, even if the delivery is anything but. Rather than commissioning your own mitigation for every site, you’ll be able to pay a nature restoration levy into a central fund. Natural England pools those payments and delivers nutrient mitigation at a landscape scale — wetlands, river restoration, that sort of thing — through area-specific Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs).
Where an EDP is in place and covers your impact, the levy payment replaces the bespoke nutrient budgeting and credit-hunting that has held up tens of thousands of homes across affected catchments.
The important caveat: nothing is live yet
Here’s the bit to be clear-eyed about. Laying regulations is a step towards the fund, not the switch being flicked. Natural England has said it will shortly launch the formal consultation on the first draft EDP — which will deal with nutrient pollution — and every draft EDP must go through a public consultation of at least 28 days. Only once the legislation is in place and consultations are complete will finalised EDPs go to the Secretary of State for approval before they “go live” for developers.
So for now, nutrient neutrality still applies exactly as it does today. If your site sits in one of the affected catchments, you still need a nutrient budget and mitigation to get a planning consent — the NRF is the future route, not yet the present one.
What this means for you
Two practical takeaways. First, keep doing your nutrient calculations properly — the current regime is unchanged until an approved EDP actually covers your area, and a sound nutrient budget remains the foundation of any consent or mitigation deal. Second, watch for that first nutrient EDP consultation; when it lands it’ll set out the proposed conservation measures and the levy charging schedule, which is the number every developer will want to compare against the cost of buying credits today.
Either way, it starts with knowing your numbers. NutrientMonkey works out the nitrogen and phosphorus load for your scheme across England’s affected catchments — in your browser, no sign-up — so whether you’re mitigating the old way or sizing up the levy when it arrives, you’re working from a defensible budget rather than a guess.
Sources: Laying the groundwork for the Nature Restoration Fund — Defra Environment blog, 19 June 2026 · The Nature Restoration Levy Regulations 2026 (legislation.gov.uk) · The Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026 (legislation.gov.uk) · Nature Restoration Fund Implementation Plan (gov.uk)