Lost Nature report: essential reading for planners, councillors and MPs
Letter published by the West Sussex County Times 16 anuary 2025
Dear Sir,
Report essential reading for Planning Officers, District Councillors and MPs
Planning applications usually include proposed ecological mitigation and enhancement measures, and planning permissions are often granted with legally binding conditions specifying ecological enhancements and mitigation measures that must be provided by the developer.
However, a recently published report, ‘Lost Nature, are housing developers delivering their ecological commitments?’, commissioned by Wild Justice and researched by Sheffield University, reveals that of the 42 completed new-build housing developments audited on-site by the researchers “only half of the commitments to mitigate harm to nature had been kept”.
And that “many ecological enhancements had simply not materialised” with 83% of hedgehog highways, 41% of wild flower grassland areas, 85% of hibernacula and refugia for amphibians for reptiles,100% of bug boxes and 75% of both bat and bird boxes that should have been provided had not been provided, 39% of the trees detailed on planting plans were missing or dead, “nearly half of the native hedges that were supposed to be laid did not exist” and that “very often Net Gain will exist only on spreadsheets”.
The researchers found that proactive monitoring of housing developments by Local Planning Authorities to ensure compliance rarely happens, that there is a skills and knowledge gap that needs to be filled, and that enforcement teams are significantly understaffed, with “very little regulation of developer behaviour in consequence”. This is outrageous.
Given the huge and unprecedented housing targets now in prospect the report should be essential reading for planning officers, District Councillors, especially planning committee members, and MPs across Sussex.
Yours faithfully,
Dr R F Smith,
Trustee CPRE Sussex
Read:
Lost Nature report: www.cpresussex.org.uk/news/nature-loses-out-as-developers-fail-to-keep-ecological-commitments/