Planning Bill to head to Lords without nature protection amendments

Last week, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill concluded its Report and Third Reading stages in the House of Commons. The Government rejected the view, aired by many MPs from across the political spectrum, that the Bill would allow the destruction of irreplaceable natural habitats and weaken environmental protections. However, housing minister Matthew Pennycook has said consideration will be given to how to amend the Bill to address concerns.

The Bill heads to the Lords later this month, where government amendments could be made. At present, green groups such as the RSPB’s position is that, absent amendment, Part 3 should be scrapped.

Meanwhile, campaigner Wild Justice has lodged an application for judicial review at the High Court against the Bill. It explained: “The proposed Bill removes the current requirement that authorities must be sure, beyond reasonable scientific doubt, that a development won’t harm a protected site or species. Instead, proposals in the new bill mean that developers can disregard protected status designations and simply pay into a nature restoration levy scheme, supposedly to ‘offset' any damage. We believe the proposed levy scheme is meaningless because the Secretary of State would no longer have to judge the level of mitigation on the basis of rigorous scientific evidence, but rather on the vague ‘likelihood’ that mitigation may be at an appropriate level. That’s a very dangerous precedent.”