Two of the UK’s largest conservation charities, the RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts, are warning that the UK Government’s blinkered “Build Baby Build” agenda is creating a perfect storm of threats to nature, and that this is at odds with the public’s ambition for protecting wildlife and habitats which is at an all-time high.

As the UK Government pushes ahead with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, considers weakening Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) rules, and flirts with further anti-nature measures in next week’s Budget, the organisations - which represent over two million people - have united to call for an urgent rethink to protect nature.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is now in its final stages, yet vital safeguards for wildlife and habitats remain absent. At the same time, rumours of imminent changes to BNG - such as exempting small development sites - could shatter England’s nature market just as it begins to thrive, according to experts ⁽¹⁾. With the budget looming, there are also reports that the Chancellor could announce a further assault on nature protections in the planning system.

This growing crisis comes against a backdrop of anti-nature rhetoric from some Cabinet ministers over the past year, as highlighted in last weekend’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) report. 

This month marks the anniversary of the landmark Environment Act being passed with cross-party support to recover nature. But four years on, BNG - created by the Act to embed nature recovery into development - now faces evisceration by the Government.

Figures in Government are turning their backs on nature just as the public is turning in ever greater numbers towards it. Recent polling by the RSPB and More in Common ⁽⁴⁾ shows that the British public overwhelmingly values nature and does not want it sacrificed for short-term growth. 

Almost 65,000 people have already emailed MPs to call for strong nature protections in the Planning Bill. Meanwhile, over 20,000 have responded to a consultation on BNG, urging the Government not to exempt small sites from BNG requirements and squeeze nature into smaller and smaller places as a result. 

Mike Pratt, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Chief Executive says:
“The Government has shown a breathtaking lack of consistency on protecting nature. In January ministers said they were fully committed to the scheme through which developers pay to restore nature - but now they’re proposing to torpedo plans for Biodiversity Net Gain. Politicians only have themselves to blame for lack of private sector finance for nature recovery - their constant flip flopping is ruining business confidence.

“Also, the Planning Bill threatens to remove the internationally recognised principle of the mitigation hierarchy from the planning process - that means removing strict protection for those bits of nature that can’t be replaced from the planning process. Yet Labour promised to ‘save nature’ when it came to power. How can we trust anything they say? They appear intent on a historic betrayal of nature, of cherished wild places and of the nature-loving British public. This has to stop.”