10 September 2024
Today (Tuesday, 10 September), ahead of the Autumn Statement and the Comprehensive Spending Review, over 30 organisations from the environmental, professional, and public sectors have signed a joint letter to Chancellor Rachel Reeves. They are calling for increased investment in environmental planning expertise as a way to unlock economic growth and deliver on infrastructure, homebuilding, and nature targets.
The organisations, which include the National Trust, Aldersgate, The Climate Coalition, Prospect Union, and the RSPB, are urging the Chancellor to support increased funding for staffing, resolve pay issues to improve recruitment and retention, establish regional "Centres of Excellence" for planning, and prioritise training opportunities to reduce staff turnover.
The calls come as new figures from Natural England show that chronic underinvestment in environmental expertise has caused significant delays across the planning system.
The figures reveal that between 2022 and 2023, Natural England failed to meet deadlines for 1 in 6 nationally significant infrastructure project applications, with over a fifth of these deadlines missed due to under-resourcing and workload issues. For local infrastructure and development project applications, the data shows that Natural England missed nearly 20% of its statutory deadlines, with capacity issues and higher-than-normal levels of staff turnover responsible for 83.28% of these delays.
Richard Benwell CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link said: “Chronic underinvestment in environmental planning expertise has led to poor decisions and delays. It results in environmental illiteracy in the planning system, which can put environment and development artificially at odds, or lead to significant harm to nature.
“With a modest investment, the Chancellor could make a major contribution to nature-friendly development. With the right ecological expertise to assess and advise on planning decisions, renewables and housing development are much more likely to go hand-in-hand with the restoration of the UK’s “Critical Natural Infrastructure” - the wildlife and habitats that are the foundation of every economy.
Rachel Solomon Williams, Executive Director at the Aldersgate Group, said: “An effective and well-designed planning system is critical not only to reaching our net zero and nature goals, but also to driving economic growth. The government’s plans to enact reform are welcome, but to be effective they must be underpinned by a commitment to increase resourcing and address ongoing skills gaps in the environmental sector. As housebuilding, renewables development, and energy infrastructure expansion continue to increase in the coming years, it’s imperative that authorities have the requisite capacity and expertise on hand to assess projects effectively and at pace.”
Ben Middleton, Prospect National Secretary, Environment said: “Prospect welcomes and supports the call for better funding for nature. Our members within DEFRA, Natural England, and the Environment Agency witness firsthand the extent to which our natural environment is being degraded at an alarming rate and are frustrated at how successive funding cuts have left them overworked, undervalued and unable to properly discharge their advisory, monitoring, and regulatory functions in a timely and effective fashion. This trend must be reversed if the UK is to meet its obligations and Environment Improvement Plan goals, and the time for action is now.”
Kevin Austin, the RSPB’s director of policy and advocacy, said: “Charities, unions and industry agree that delivering the homes and clean energy infrastructure we need, while also protecting and restoring nature, requires sufficiently resourced local government and statutory bodies.
The experts at the heart of our environmental protection and planning systems have been under-resourced and undervalued for years. Without a new approach, our nature, housing and clean power ambitions will all suffer. This budget is the time to put things right so we can press ahead with building clean infrastructure and homes while protecting nature and involving communities.”
Becky Pullinger, head of land use planning at The Wildlife Trusts, says: “Putting nature at the heart of the planning system requires political motivation, wildlife-friendly laws and policy, the right levels of investment and, crucially, a skilled workforce to help realise that ambition. We fully support a drive to create new green jobs and upskill workers with greater ecological expertise so all developments deliver the maximum benefits for nature"
ENDS
1. Data was supplied by WCL Freedom of Information Request to Natural England
2. Over 30 organisations signed on to support the joint letter. These include: Prospect, The Aldersgate Group, E3G, The Nature Conservancy, The National Trust, regen, Possible, Greenpeace, The Wildlife Trust, RSPB, Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust, Froglife, Angling Trust, CIEEM, The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment, Campaign for National Parks, Buglife, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, The Rivers Trust, Badger Trust, Open Spaces Society, Butterfly Conservation, People's Trust for Endangers Species, Plantlife, National Forum for Biological Recording, Friends of the Earth, Bat Conservation Trust, Woodland Trust, The Climate Coalition, Earth Trust.
3. Link's full Comprehensive Spending Review submission can be found here.
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