The Planning & Infrastructure Bill represents environmental regression - it must be fixed

2 May 2025

In response to today’s announcement from the Office for Environmental Protection that the Planning & Infrastructure Bill in its current form represents environmental regression, Ali Plummer, Director of Policy & Advocacy, at Wildlife and Countryside Link, said:

“When the Government’s own watchdog brands the Planning and Infrastructure Bill environmental regression, ministers can’t ignore it. This Bill would weaken legal safeguards in favour of vague promises—abandoning the gold-standard Habitats Regulations and risking the loss of the tried-and-tested mitigation hierarchy. The Bill is a clear watering down of protections but there is still time to amend it, resulting in wins for both development, communities and wildlife. England deserves policies that raise the bar for nature and neighbourhoods nationwide, not roll it back. Now is the time for the Government to recognise the problems with the Bill and get it back on track."

Earlier this month over 30 environmental groups including the National Trust, RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts wrote to Secretary of State Steve Reed and Minister Mathew Pennycookcalling for the government to fix the proposed Planning Bill to ensure that it does not undo existing environmental law and further threaten nature, but takes the opportunity for “win-wins” for nature restoration and sustainable development.

In their Wilder By Design campaign the charities have called on the government to make sure Planning Proposals:

- Deliver a planning system that is wilder by design: Including a Local Authority duty to help meet climate and nature targets, delivering well-designed national spatial and marine plans, and requiring cost-effective nature-friendly design elements in new developments.
- Prioritise avoiding harm: Developers must first avoid environmental damage before relying on Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) to provide compensation, maintaining the long-standing “mitigation hierarchy”.
- Base decisions on science: New protected features should only be added when clear scientific evidence supports the effectiveness of strategic approaches.
- Guarantee upfront benefits: Environmental improvements must be delivered upfront with a clear and transparent improvement plan. The improvement test must also be strengthened to require definite, measurable, and significant benefits, rather than just probable improvements.