An approach to assessing evidence for Environmental Development Plans (EDPs)

Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) are a key component of England’s Nature Restoration Fund. They provide a route for developers to pay for nature restoration to compensate for nature losses arising from construction of, for example, new housing. 

In this briefing we propose an approach to creating EDPs, to help officials navigate how to incorporate the weight of diverse sources of evidence with a proportionate consideration of risk. 

In summary  

• Evidence-based practice is vital for the effective delivery of EDPs.  

• Evidence that can inform policy is diverse, but approaches exist for assessing the strength, reliability and relevance of evidence in relation to specific questions and assumptions. 

• This can help policy makers decide how much evidence is needed to provide confidence that outcomes will be achieved. However, there is no single threshold for the amount of evidence required to be confident an intervention will be effective, as this will depend on the risk of failure. Approaches exist to prioritise evidence collation.   

• A range of evidence of relevance to EDPs already exists both at the policy and conservation action level, so collating this will be important.