The federal government yesterday (on 8 Might) tabled a brand new modification to the Planning and Infrastructure Invoice which specialists warn will additional undermine environmental protections.
Launched earlier this yr, the flagship legislative proposal goals to expedite the planning course of for brand new developments in England.
Nevertheless, scores of environmental NGOs and public and parliamentary our bodies – together with the Workplace for Environmental Safety and the Environmental Audit Committee, have strongly cautioned that, in its present type, the Invoice threatens to severely compromise environmental safeguards and will result in vital, everlasting biodiversity loss.
The most recent modification, launched by Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook, seeks to delay the analysis of conservation measures designed to compensate for the environmental impacts of growth. These measures function the important thing benchmarks in opposition to which the federal government’s Environmental Supply Plans (EDPs) are assessed — referred to as the ‘general enchancment check’.
In response, specialists have warned that such delays could lead to appreciable environmental hurt earlier than mitigation measures can take impact, probably inflicting irreversible injury to wildlife and habitats throughout the nation.
Commenting on the modification, Jason Reeves, Head of Coverage on the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Administration (CIEEM), stated:
“This new modification does nothing to strengthen the check of enchancment, and in impact — really delays the measure of the check 10 years into the longer term, whereas what we actually want is for nature enhancements to be in place forward of impacts — in any other case we might be working a nature deficit and exacerbating nature’s decline.
“CIEEM is happy to see that the Authorities is open to amending the Invoice. Nevertheless, this won’t allay issues that the Authorities is placing growth forward of nature restoration, making a mockery of statements that the Invoice is a win-win for growth and nature.”
The Institute has additionally proposed numerous amendments to the Invoice, which it asserts would considerably enhance outcomes for nature with out hindering growth.