In February 2025, we reported that HS2 Ltd’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of HS2 were not delivering value for money. For example, it was building a 1km ‘bat tunnel’ at a cost of around £100 million to reduce the impact of the railway on a protected species of bat.27 We asked about the impact of the Nature Restoration Fund on the Department’s large infrastructure projects, and whether this would enable Northern Powerhouse Rail to avoid such expensive measures to meet biodiversity requirements. The Department explained it was working with Defra to take advantage of the new Planning and Infrastructure Act. It identified two different areas of opportunity: more efficient consenting processes and more strategic approaches to nature recovery through environmental delivery plans and the Nature Restoration Fund. The Department was hopeful the changes would enable more balanced decisions supporting both nature recovery and efficient infrastructure delivery.28 However, in subsequent correspondence, the Department explained that the Nature Restoration Fund and its supporting measures were not yet live. As such the Department could not set out detail on how they would work in practice.29 25 C&AG’s report, para 16 26 Q 68 27 Committee of Public Accounts, HS2: Update following the Northern leg cancellation, Tenth Report of Session 2024–25, HC 357, 28 February 2025 28 Qq 70–72 29 Letter from the DfT, 14 May 2026 11 2 Working with central and local government Working with other central government departments