Today [23 January 2025] the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has announced that “Nuclear plants, trainlines and windfarms will be built quicker thanks to changes to the rules to stop blockers getting in the way of the government’s Plan for Change.”
The announcement seems to squarely address NIMBYs blocking development, but is also conflating nature conservation and recovery as a major blocker. Yes, the planning system can be better but the Government risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The Prime Minister said: “The new common-sense approach doesn’t allow newts or bats to be more important than the homes hardworking people need, or the roads and hospital this country needs.” Newts and bats (and other protected sites and species) are proxies for the wider natural environment, and we need both development and a healthy natural environment.
The rhetoric from Government seems to have moved on from the pleasing early joint announcement on housing and nature by Angela Rayner and Steve Reed.
Today’s announcement comes on the back of the planning reform proposals published in December that have caused serious consternation amongst the nature conservation community, and also the announcement of the Nature Restoration Fund. Yet, at the same time the Office for Environmental Protection’s latest assessment report says that Government is not only off track on nature recovery but that action is slowing. The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries on Earth.
Posted On: 23/01/2025
More on: