Presenting environmental protections and regulators as enemies of progress is madness

The current government is not the first to aspire to Britain building by dramatically increasing the scale of housebuilding and streamlining planning rules to make it easier to deliver major infrastructure projects. Writes Erin McDaid of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust

The desire to provide quality, affordable housing and improve national infrastructure is laudable and no one can dispute that the government is approaching this challenge with enthusiasm.

However, rather than focusing on the positive steps they need to achieve this, the Prime Minister and his deputy have revived old, tired lines seeking to develop regulations and planning rules designed to protect nature as the enemy of progress. .

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson never hesitated to pop into Nimbies and claimed in 2020 that delays in counting newts were a huge drag on this country's prosperity, a claim hotly contested by environmental groups and others.

At the time, the Town & Country Planning Association, a charity which works to challenge, inspire and support people to create healthy, sustainable and resilient places that are equitable for all, said that She was not aware of any evidence that newt surveys were causing unnecessary delays. of Development and my colleague Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, described Boris's speech as pure fiction.

In recent weeks, Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, responsible for implementing the Government's promised overhaul of the planning system, has promised to end the stranglehold on housebuilding and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to tackle blockers and bureaucrats have described the planning system as increasingly ruinous and called the structure being built a mitigation impacts of the construction of HS2 on a colony of rare bats – and disparagingly referred to by others as a bat shed – an absurd spectacle.

In contrast, Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook speaking in November as part of the announcement of a new government program aimed at unblocking delays in developments that risk increasing pollution levels by nitrogen and phosphorus in waterways, damaging natural habitats and harming wildlife, said: We need to build more housing across the country and unlock growth, but this must not not get used to detriment to our natural environment.

Through this fund, and alongside major reforms to the planning system, we will accelerate housing construction and ensure nature restoration, creating a win-win outcome for both the economy and nature. His colleague, Environment Minister Mary Creagh, added: Britain faces a housing and nature crisis.

This new government was elected with a mandate to enable Britain to rebuild and restore nature. That’s why we will deliver a planning system that will unlock house building and improve outcomes for nature.

They claim that actions speak louder than words. It is therefore to be hoped that practical measures such as this scheme to provide funding to unlock up to 28,000 environmentally risky homes will be more indicative of the approach the Government plans to take.

While blaming environmental rules and regulators is a tried and, I would argue, tired formula, the fact that this funding seems intended to unlock so much development also points to another impediment to development, the desire of housebuilders to make a profit .

If all housing construction is handed over to the commercial sector, difficult, complex and potentially less profitable projects may not be completed.

A study by the Local Government Association, which represents local councils responsible for the vast majority of planning decisions, found that more than a million homes granted planning permission in England over the past decade have not yet been built. .

So, rather than seeking to blame construction delays on environmental protections, perhaps we should put more pressure on developers to carry out projects that have already obtained planning permission and ensure that local planning authorities have the resources they need to monitor and support projects. enforcement measures where development has been agreed subject to measures to mitigate the impact on wildlife species and habitats.