Housing secretary tells Labour MPs to vote down planning bill amendment

"Under the draft legislation proposed by Labour, developers will be able to pay into a national nature recovery fund and go ahead with their project straight away, instead of having to carry out an environmental survey and to first avoid, then mitigate damage, before putting spades into the ground. Experts say this is a regression on decades-old environmental law and it has been criticised as cash to trash by ecologists and environmental groups."

"In a letter to MPs some of the UK's biggest nature charities, including the Wildlife Trusts and RSPB, say the government rollback of environmental law lacks any rigorous scientific or ecological justification. There is no credible, published, or well established evidence that this model can simply be scaled or replicated for multiple species nationwide without risking serious ecological harm, legal uncertainty, and increased costs for both developers and land managers, the letter reads."

Housing secretary Steve Reed instructed Labour MPs to oppose a House of Lords amendment that would protect British wildlife and habitats from exclusion under new planning rules. The amendment would remove protections for species such as dormice, badgers, hedgehogs, otters and nightingales, and for habitats including wetlands and ancient woodlands, from rules that allow developers to bypass environmental obligations. The draft bill would let developers pay into a national nature recovery fund and proceed immediately without carrying out environmental surveys or first avoiding and then mitigating damage. Conservation experts and leading nature charities warn this approach risks serious ecological harm, legal uncertainty, and increased costs.

Read at www.theguardian.com