Planning Bill still jeopardises nature, Wildlife and Countryside Link warns

Nature coalition Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) has said that, despite positive amendments to Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the legislation remains “regressive, locking in harm rather than delivering genuine recovery”. It argued the Bill as it stands risks impeding delivery of the Environment Act 2021 targets, the 25 Year Environment Plan and the Environmental Improvement Plan, and breaching the UK’s obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

With the Bill back in the House of Lords, WCL called for amendments to: 

• Embed the mitigation hierarchy in Environmental Delivery Plans and related decisions, so avoidance of harm is always the first priority, preventing compensation from becoming the default.

• Use site-specific baseline ecological data to underpin all Environmental Delivery Plans, ensuring decisions are based on sound science, enabling accurate monitoring, and avoiding irreversible harm. 

• Exclude irreplaceable habitats and species without robust evidence from Environmental Delivery Plans, "so critical ecological assets cannot be traded away on the basis of untested, unevidenced models”. 

It also recommend the Bill improve the planning system with complementary, nature-positive measures to deliver restoration locally – so communities benefit directly, and high-development areas do not become “nature deserts”.