As the Government considers the response to its proposals to radically overhaul the planning system in England, RSPB Senior Policy Officer, Carl Bunnage reflects on what this might mean for nature, and how 10,000 actions have made sure that its voice is heard.
At the end of October, we submitted our response to the Government’s consultation on its proposals for radical changes to the planning system in England. It had set these out in a White Paper called ‘Planning for the Future’. The question is whether this future will be rich in nature, or whether we will continue to see its heart-breaking decline.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/get-involved/campaigning/planning_for_the_future_response.pdf
As we responded to the Government’s consultation, our members and supporters leant their weight by responding to our campaign and taking action. They sent over 10,000 messages to the Government, raising their voices and asking it to ensure a planning system fit to address the nature emergency and ensure a nature-rich future. That is nearly one in five of every response made to the consultation. A big thank you to everyone who took this opportunity to stand-up for nature – you are helping to make a big difference!
So, why do the Government’s proposals matter, and what happens next?
The planning system has a vital role to play in shaping the environment in which we all live. It determines what gets built where, and to what standard. It protects some of our most valuable places, habitats and landscapes. It tries to help ensure that we can adapt and be resilient to future changes, not least as a result of climate change. However despite all of its achievements, nature has been on a path of decline for decades.
Nature is in need more now than ever of a planning system that helps stop its decline, supports its recovery and ensures its long-term health. Unfortunately we do not think that the Government’s proposals do this. They are sadly lacking for nature, and could actually make things worse.
The proposals are based on an ill-informed argument that environmental protections slow down and delay new house building. We know from the evidence that this simply isn’t true.
The Government wants 300,000 new homes a year to be built across England. The RSPB is not opposed to new house building (after all we all need a home!) but it must take nature’s needs fully into account. It must be in the right place, protecting important habitats and species as well as the corridors that link them together, and it must ensure that new development is nature-friendly with gardens and green spaces accessible to everyone.
At the heart of the changes, the Government is proposing that all land in England is put into one of three categories of planning ‘zones’. Individual parcels of land will be placed into one of these ‘protected’, ‘renewal’ or ‘growth’ areas. This will make a big difference for whoever and whatever lives there – including of course our amazing wildlife.
‘Protected’ areas would include sites already designated for nature conservation, but despite nature being in freefall the proposals offer no additional protections for it. Development within the protected zone could still take place but would need a planning application to be approved as it is now.
‘Renewal’ areas would include existing built areas where smaller scale development, such as increasing the density of residential areas or regenerating our High Streets, would be automatically supported in principle. Re-using derelict land can often make sense, but sometimes such sites can be a haven for wildlife. They can in fact be more rich in nature than some official ‘green-belt’ land. The worry is that permission to build on land within the renewal area could be given without even understanding what wildlife currently lives there, and new developments may not be green and nature-friendly.
‘Growth’ areas would be areas for substantial new development such as new towns or large extensions to existing ones. Within these areas the principle that new development can take place would be agreed through the automatic granting of what is called outline planning permission. Detailed issues (such as the design of buildings and their access to the road network) would still need to be agreed by officials but local people would have less of a say in whether specific development proposals should take place on their doorstep. We think that this sets a dangerous precedent for our most important habitats and species which are already in decline.
Whilst there are also some positive elements about the proposed changes, we have many other concerns. They weaken protection for nature; reduce opportunities for the public and other organisations to get involved with the planning system and to raise their concerns about planning applications that might harm local wildlife; and are likely to reduce opportunities to secure funding from developers for measures to offset the harm from new development to wildlife as well as provide the nature-rich greenspaces that we all need.
So how might things be better?
One of the asks that we have made to Government is for the establishment of additional areas where wildlife would be safeguarded with stronger protections, and for the first time identify areas of degraded land where nature could be allowed to recover. We’ve called these Highly Protected Areas and Nature Recovery Areas. We think that these could make a real difference and we hope that the Government agrees!
If you would like to know more about any of these issues you can read our full response to the Government here.
What happens next?
It seems that you are making a real difference, and Government officials have recognised that their proposals are not currently right for nature nor the environment and that more work is needed.
We won’t be letting-up. We will be taking every opportunity to work with Government officials and politicians, alongside other environmental organisations and alone, to try to make the proposals better. We’ll scrutinise policy developments as they happen, offer our support where we can, and hold the Government’s feet to the fire where we need to.
There is much to be done over the coming months, but a heartfelt thank-you for your support so far in speaking up for nature and our future.
Hello Janet,Thanks for your comment. Yes, it is disappointing that the latest letter from the Government to Local Authorities once again made no reference to nature. However please be assured that we are talking to both Government officials and politicians and pushing hard for nature-friendly changes to be made before the anticipated Planning Bill in the Autumn. We will definitely keep the pressure up!
I note that MHCLG propose to publish their response to the Planning for the Future consultation in the Spring, with legislation possibly following in the autumn. I can find no reference in their latest planning letter to Local Authorities to nature or the issues the RSPB has outlined, though they say that "initial work will focus on developing the next level of policy detail, having considered the inputs received." This isn't very reassuring as the issues we need the Government to focus on are rather more than policy detail. I hope the RSPB can keep up the pressure to improve these proposals.