The Planning and Infrastructure Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons on 25 June and has now progressed to the House of Lords following a final debate in the Commons today. ARC still has significant concerns that the Bill as draft poses significant threats for wildlife and the proposed mechanism for mitigating impacts on species lack sufficient rigour or clarity around how they would work in practice.

As an active member, ARC collaborated with the Wildlife & Countryside Link coalition to highlight four key risks in the original Bill, calling for a series of amendments to ensure:

1. Greater legal certainty for environmental improvement.

2. Stronger reliance on scientific evidence.

4. A clear requirement to prioritise harm avoidance.
5. Transparency around the timing of conservation measures.

We also advocated for more measurable benefits for nature and welcome several proposed amendments, including:

• A legal guarantee that benefits to nature will “materially outweigh” any harm.
• An ecological test to confirm that offsite measures will now be required to specify timelines for the implementation of nature protection measures, including whether they must be in place before construction begins.
• Where rare species or habitats are at stake, the amendments will allow for conservation work to start even before a development receives formal approval.

We also welcome the Government statement recognising that nature is not a barrier to development, affirming that environmental restoration is integral to economic prosperity, and confirming that irreplaceable habitats must remain untouched. The statement commits to a more nature positive approach that includes:

• Measures to avoid harm to the most sensitive sites and species.
• Continued use of the mitigation hierarchy in designing EDPs.
• Front-loaded conservation measures where there is a risk of irreversible damage.

We jointly emphasise that this new direction represents a major shift in nature conservation law. Any reform of this magnitude brings both significant risks and potential benefits for the natural environment. We await reassurance from the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) that the amendments adequately address the concerns raised in its advice to Government. We remain doubtful that the mechanisms offered will be able to work effectively or that funding will be sufficient to fully offset the harm, let alone provide demonstrable improvements in status as advocated; we shall look to influence outcomes here to address these concerns.  We also believe that more could be achieved through better implementation of existing legislation as advocated by the recently published review of the Habitats & Species Regulations, rather than seeking wholesale change to the systems, with associated the risks and uncertainties that this will bring the conservation of wildlife and to developers alike.  

We look forward to working closely with our colleagues in Wildlife & Countryside Link and others in the non-Government sector and with Natural England and our Species Champion MP’s during the Bill’s remaining stages, as well as on the delivery and implementation of the Nature Restoration Fund.

 

For more information on ARCs objectives and strategy please see Our Strategy to 2030.