#planning-bill

#planning-bill

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.

The government has committed to supporting self-build and custom housebuilding through a new £16 billion National Housing Bank, helping individuals and small builders get projects off the ground.

Fifteen Labour MPs rebelled against the government on Monday night to back an amendment by Labour's Chris Hinchliff to the planning and infrastructure bill that would have imposed new environmental obligations.