Wildlife charity blasts Government bill it thinks will cause permanent damage

A Berks and Bucks wildlife charity has criticised the Government for a bill it believes will cause permanent damage to the environment by ‘rushing through’ new housing developments.

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) says that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill currently going through Parliament poses ‘one of the biggest threats to nature laws in over a generation.’

This bill is intended to tackle housing need in the UK – while finding a way to mitigate the impact on nature.

A Nature Restoration Fund would be set up (managed by Natural England), whereby builders will pitch in to a pool of contributions to fund ‘larger scale interventions in nature.’

But BBOWT argues the change will simply allow developers to ‘sidestep vital environmental regulations.’

Developers could freely destroy important habitats without assessing what wildlife lives there, provided they pay into the fund, BBOWT argues.

The Government’s view, meanwhile, is that environmental assessments and case-by-case negotiations for mitigation often slow down the delivery of housing and infrastructure – all while the environment continues to decline.

By contrast, the Nature Restoration Fund could remove ‘time intensive and costly processes.’

BBOWT also called the Government’s plan to centralise mitigation efforts ‘short-sighted’ because it ‘assumes that species will simply relocate to new environments’.

Great crested newts, bats, dormice, and water voles are found in specific locations ‘for a reason’ and attempting to relocate them ‘will significantly harm their populations.’

In addition, people living near a proposed development site would receive none of the benefits of habitat creation, they added.

BBOWT’s chief executive, Estelle Bailey, said:

“We know that a thriving economy depends on a thriving natural world, but Keir Starmer is bizarrely pushing a false choice between protecting nature and building homes.

“This is an unnecessary and divisive rhetoric – the two can and must be considered together.”

The charity’s director of external affairs, Matthew Stanton, added: “The system is designed to rush through development, not restore nature.

“There are plenty of good examples of how housebuilders and those in the environmental sector have worked together to create homes for people and wildlife that represent a true win-win.

“Seventy-one percent of the UK supports increased planning protections for green and blue spaces, including woodlands, parks, and rivers.

“Yet the Government’s bill will … discourage innovative, forward-thinking developers from planning with nature in mind.”

Meanwhile, BBOWT’s Senior Ecologist, Colin Williams, stressed it can take ‘many years’ to restore a wildflower-rich meadow – and can be impossible if ground conditions are unfavourable.

“Our recent restoration work at Chimney Meadows revealed just how challenging this kind of project is,” he said. “It is far better to protect what we have than try to replace it elsewhere.”

BBOWT is in discussions with local MPs, urging them to support amendments to the bill – and is also asking the public to write to their MPs and ‘stand up for nature’.

The Government says it is engaging with nature conservation organisations, developers, and communities – and will only act on steps it can confirm will deliver positive environmental outcomes.

 A Government spokesperson said:

“We have inherited a failing system that has held up the building of homes and infrastructure, blocking economic growth but doing nothing for nature’s recovery.

“Communities and the environment deserve better than this broken status quo.

“Our Bill will deliver a win-win for the economy and nature.

“[It will] unblock the building of much-needed homes and infrastructure, funding large scale environmental improvements across whole communities, and introducing robust protections so that our new approach can only be used where it will create positive outcomes for the environment.”