Laws protecting wildlife and habitats are not ‘growth blockers’

CPRE Sussex response to the ‘Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery’

CPRE Sussex has responded strongly to the government’s call for views on its ‘Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery’. In our view, the Working Paper, which sets out some of the proposals expected to appear in the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill, fails to recognise that nature ultimately sustains our economies, livelihoods and well-being.

At the heart of the Working Paper is the suggestion that developers will be able to ignore many of the onsite environmental issues on their sites, through ill-defined proposals for financial payments (into a nature restoration fund) that helps fund ‘strategic actions’ elsewhere, to let development proceed more quickly. This would include the scrapping of onsite wildlife surveys.

We refute the Working Paper’s underlying assumption that protections provided by environmental laws must be either removed or weakened because they are obstacles to economic growth, home ownership and the provision of new infrastructure.

Research shows that laws protecting wildlife and habitats are not ‘growth blockers’, and that the application and enforcement of these laws is not responsible for the under delivery of housing and related infrastructure.

Developers have gained planning permission for over 1.4 million homes since 2007 but have not built them. Reasons include wanting to increase the land’s value before selling it on and land banking to slow building rates and maintain high house prices.

Environmental laws provide much needed protection for at-risk and vulnerable wildlife and habitats (priority species and habitats) that are of national and international importance.

Only site-specific surveys can reveal the presence of protected priority species and habitats requiring protection under UK laws and international obligations.

The Working Paper does not consider the consequences for nature of permitting development on multiple sites. Given the huge and unprecedented housing targets and infrastructure that has and will continue to be imposed by the Government, most of it on green fields, the cumulative impact on nature will be catastrophic.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and the government commitments to protect at least 30% of the UK’s land and sea for nature by 2030 is woefully off target. Nature and its benefits are at risk.

The proposals in the Working Paper, if implemented, would damage nature, and increase existential risks for the economy and society.

Read:

CPRE SUSSEX Response to the Planning Reform Working Paper Development and Nature Recovery

www.gov.uk/government/publications/planning-reform-working-paper-development-and-nature-recovery