Watchdog Warns Planning Bill Weakens Environmental Protection

The UK’s newly established post-Brexit environmental watchdog has delivered a stark warning to the Government, claiming that its plans to simplify planning regulations could severely weaken nature protections and lead to more damaging ecological consequences. In a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) urged the Government to amend the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, raising serious concerns among conservationists.

Introduced to Parliament earlier this year, the Bill aims to expedite housing and major infrastructure projects as part of Labour’s ambitious growth strategy. However, the OEP has voiced strong opposition, particularly over the Bill’s proposed changes to environmental impact assessments for large-scale developments. Instead of conducting thorough, site-specific environmental evaluations and creating detailed plans to mitigate the harm to nature, developers would now be required to contribute to a new Nature Restoration Fund.

In its current form, the OEP concluded that the Bill provides “fewer protections for nature written than under existing law.”

Its letter to Rayner states: “Creating new flexibility without sufficient legal safeguards could see environmental outcomes lessened over time. And aiming to improve environmental outcomes overall, whilst laudable, is not the same as maintaining in law high levels of protection for specific habitats and species.”

This Fund, however, is meant to support large-scale restoration projects that may not even be near the developments in question. According to the OEP, this change could set a dangerous precedent, as the current system only allows such a pay-into-the-fund model in minimal scenarios.

The watchdog warns that this approach could lead to significant environmental degradation in certain regions, hampering the Government’s efforts to meet legally binding biodiversity targets. It also raises alarms about the Bill’s ‘overall improvement tests’ in Environmental Delivery Plans, suggesting that these could further diminish the effectiveness of conservation measures.

The letter from the OEP follows a broader outcry from environmental NGOs, academic experts, and policy leaders, who argue that the Bill, if left unchecked, effectively gives developers a “licence to kill” ecosystems. The Bill is currently under scrutiny in Parliament’s Committee Stage, and the OEP has pointed out that there is still time to make amendments before the legislation advances further.

The Wildlife Trusts’ head of land use planning, Becky Pullinger, said: “It is ever clearer that nature will lose out from the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. As currently drafted, the Bill stands to rip up the very foundations of our wildlife protection laws.

“The UK Government can no longer ignore the calls to make changes to the Bill and must work quickly to install the necessary safeguards to ensure nature is protected. By making a small number of amendments to the Bill, Ministers can show they mean business about delivering a win for nature.”

Green Alliance senior fellow Ruth Chambers added: “The Government’s environmental credentials depend on heeding this timely independent advice. It must now take the chance to strengthen the Bill and ensure that nature and housebuilding both benefit from this major legislation.”