The UK Planning and Infrastructure Bill will see growth and green ambition go hand in hand
10 April, 2025
Labour must hold its nerve. In the end, what nature does not need are further processes
For far too long, when it comes to building the housing and infrastructure our country so desperately needs, we have allowed delay to masquerade as environmental concern, allowing desperately needed infrastructure that would benefit working people, and the environment itself, to be kicked into the long grass. The Tories would have you believe that housing and nature cannot coexist, but the Planning and Infrastructure Bill finally dispels that myth. Labour has recognised that we do need new water reservoirs, train lines and homes and it can benefit our environment. The challenge that the climate crisis presents us with, cannot be met with requirements for builders to stick newt hotels, bat bridges, or even more commonly a flat refusal for the homes that working people need. With modernising the system and thinking about the environment as a whole, we can show that smart planning can deliver both homes and a more sustainable future.
The period between 1951 and 1955 was a golden era of housebuilding, with 1.5 million new homes built and millions of people elevated from pre-war living conditions to post-war abundance. But strict planning rules introduced in 1955 tanked this housing boom, and allowed the greenbelt to be greatly expanded, a system designed not for environmental protection but to choke the natural growth of cities. When governments did seek to build, it was usually in less politically sensitive areas which were far from job opportunities for working-class people. Over 70 years on we have a housing crisis that drives regional inequality, locks people out of opportunity, and industries out of high quality workers. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, introduced to Parliament on the 11th of March, sets out to remove some of the biggest barriers to growth in this country.
Today, our planning system is outdated and places huge constraints on the ability of governments to build any infrastructure. The loops and hurdles that planning applications need to go through mean that we too often face infrastructure paralysis. The requirement for HS2 to provide a bat tunnel costing £120 million pounds despite no real evidence that a single bat would be affected is a perfect example of these ludicrous requirements. Protecting our natural environment is a responsibility we must not shirk from, but surely that £120 Million would be better invested in our strategic national corridors and degraded woodlands which currently go underfunded. This bat tunnel is the perfect example of symbolism over substance, it simply isn’t effective conservation.
The introduction of Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) and the Nature Restoration Fund will move development past nonsensical piecemeal mitigation to a more strategic system for effectively protecting the environment. EDPs, which will be prepared by Natural England, will set out the affected environmental features by a proposed development and match these with the required conservation measures to protect those environmental features. Developers will then have to give money to Natural England to carry out the necessary conservation measures through the Nature Recovery Fund. This will play a key role in embedding nature recovery into our national infrastructure strategy as it pools together money from different developments to effectively benefit the environment.
To be an effective environmentalist means that we need to take large-scale action, not prevent progress. Some climate activists are upset that the vast sums for the Nature Restoration Fund will be raised from developers. This completely misses the crucial point of the bill to replace outdated and inefficient processes that block homes and don’t effectively protect nature. Currently, developers pay for environmental mitigations but in an incredibly ineffective and ad hoc manner. This will be replaced with a more robust, strategic system that empowers Natural England to invest in nature projects. The winner from this is ultimately environmental projects that will receive better funding.
The choice facing us is one of process or outcomes. Spending hundreds of millions on hyper-local mitigations is simply a poor use of conservation funding when larger projects have a much higher impact per £ spent. Growth and nature recovery can absolutely go hand in hand, but it will be impossible without the legislation in this bill to modernise the system.
Labour must hold its nerve. In the end, what nature does not need are further processes. It needs strategy, not stalling. Growth and green ambition go hand in hand and activists have an important role to play in shaping a new narrative. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill must succeed, as it is, to deliver for people and the planet. Growth and nature aren’t enemies – delay is.
The period between 1951 and 1955 was a golden era of housebuilding, with 1.5 million new homes built and millions of people elevated from pre-war living conditions to post-war abundance. But strict planning rules introduced in 1955 tanked this housing boom, and allowed the greenbelt to be greatly expanded, a system designed not for environmental protection but to choke the natural growth of cities. When governments did seek to build, it was usually in less politically sensitive areas which were far from job opportunities for working-class people. Over 70 years on we have a housing crisis that drives regional inequality, locks people out of opportunity, and industries out of high quality workers. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, introduced to Parliament on the 11th of March, sets out to remove some of the biggest barriers to growth in this country.
Today, our planning system is outdated and places huge constraints on the ability of governments to build any infrastructure. The loops and hurdles that planning applications need to go through mean that we too often face infrastructure paralysis. The requirement for HS2 to provide a bat tunnel costing £120 million pounds despite no real evidence that a single bat would be affected is a perfect example of these ludicrous requirements. Protecting our natural environment is a responsibility we must not shirk from, but surely that £120 Million would be better invested in our strategic national corridors and degraded woodlands which currently go underfunded. This bat tunnel is the perfect example of symbolism over substance, it simply isn’t effective conservation.
The introduction of Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) and the Nature Restoration Fund will move development past nonsensical piecemeal mitigation to a more strategic system for effectively protecting the environment. EDPs, which will be prepared by Natural England, will set out the affected environmental features by a proposed development and match these with the required conservation measures to protect those environmental features. Developers will then have to give money to Natural England to carry out the necessary conservation measures through the Nature Recovery Fund. This will play a key role in embedding nature recovery into our national infrastructure strategy as it pools together money from different developments to effectively benefit the environment.
To be an effective environmentalist means that we need to take large-scale action, not prevent progress. Some climate activists are upset that the vast sums for the Nature Restoration Fund will be raised from developers. This completely misses the crucial point of the bill to replace outdated and inefficient processes that block homes and don’t effectively protect nature. Currently, developers pay for environmental mitigations but in an incredibly ineffective and ad hoc manner. This will be replaced with a more robust, strategic system that empowers Natural England to invest in nature projects. The winner from this is ultimately environmental projects that will receive better funding.
The choice facing us is one of process or outcomes. Spending hundreds of millions on hyper-local mitigations is simply a poor use of conservation funding when larger projects have a much higher impact per £ spent. Growth and nature recovery can absolutely go hand in hand, but it will be impossible without the legislation in this bill to modernise the system.
Labour must hold its nerve. In the end, what nature does not need are further processes. It needs strategy, not stalling. Growth and green ambition go hand in hand and activists have an important role to play in shaping a new narrative. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill must succeed, as it is, to deliver for people and the planet. Growth and nature aren’t enemies – delay is.
Issy Waite is National Secretary of Labour Students and a former parliamentary candidate
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