The Wildlife Trusts have warned of a nightmare before Christmas for biodiversity as the UK Government went against its election commitment to ensure that development promotes nature recovery.
The Labour Government has watered down Biodiversity Net Gain, the scheme which requires homes for wildlife to be delivered alongside homes for people.
It is estimated that the exemption announced on 16 December will lead to at least 60% of all planning applications escaping Biodiversity Net Gain obligations.
Biodiversity Net Gain is to be gutted in order to pave the way for deregulated house-building (gov.uk).
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Planning promises broken
Furthermore, The Wildlife Trusts have suggested that additional anti-nature policies are looming. They include the weakening of the Habitats Regulations which protect the wildlife sites of greatest significance and international importance for nature. This threat has arisen thanks to the Prime Minister’s recent enthusiastic response to the Nuclear Taskforce’s recommendation to bypass existing regulations. Elsewhere, remarks from the Farming Minister indicate that the nature-friendly farming elements of Environmental Land Management schemes could be scrapped.
The Labour Party election manifesto, published in June 2024, read: “We will implement solutions to unlock the building of homes affected by nutrient neutrality without weakening environmental protections.”
Since making this promise, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill has been approved. It goes far wider than nutrient neutrality and weakens environmental protections across the board. In the words of the Office for Environmental Protection’s assessment of the amended Bill: “Even after the material amendments the government proposes, the Bill would, in some respects, lower environmental protection on the face of the law.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves famously said in January 2025: “So we are reducing the environmental requirements placed on developers when they pay into the nature-restoration fund that we have created so they can focus on getting things built, and stop worrying about bats and newts.”
Additionally, a press release from the Labour Party in June 2024 read: “[We will ensure] new towns and house building include nature at their heart, with access to parks and green spaces on people’s doorsteps and environmental standards protected.”
Since making this promise the Government has proposed significantly weakening Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), the standards intended to deliver space for nature alongside new homes. Proposals were consulted on in summer 2025. An announcement of major BNG exemptions following the consultation, on such a scale as to cause the scheme to collapse is expected on 18 December, just before Parliament rises for the Christmas recess.
Farmland birds such as Grey Partridge are set to struggle further if the UK Government waters down Environmental Land Management schemes (Angela Lord).
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Protected sites and landscapes
The same June 2024 press release contained the pledge: “We will help protected areas like national parks and national landscapes to become wilder and greener, ending the destruction of nature, restoring and expanding habitats.”
Since making this promise the Prime Minister has pledged to implement the recommendations of the Fingleton Nuclear Regulatory Review, which includes proposals to weaken the Habitat Regulations and to remove a duty on local authorities to further National Park and National Landscape purposes . If progressed and applied across industrial sectors, as proposed by the Prime Minister on 1 December, this will see England’s most special wild sites damaged and polluted by industrial development.
On nature-friendly farming, the Labour Party said: “[we will] Promote regenerative farming and nature’s recovery through the Environment Land Management schemes to protect nature and secure Britain’s long-term food security.”
Since making this promise, delays to Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes have left farmers wanting to do the right thing for nature without the necessary support. The largest scheme, the Sustainable Farming Incentive, has been paused and is being reviewed by the government, apparently with a view to weaken its environmental elements and to prioritise food production and efficiency over support for nature-friendly farming.
The current Labour Government has so far demonstrated a disappointing track record on the environment (Maria Linger).
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Environmental regression
It appears that an open letter from industry leaders and environmental charities urging the UK Government to get Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) back on track across England has fallen on deaf ears.
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, commented:Â “In their Election Manifesto, Labour made a commitment to ensure that housing and infrastructure development would be done in a way that ‘promotes nature’s recovery’. But today’s announcement adds to the long list of ways in which this promise is being broken.
“More specifically, in January of this year when he was Environment Secretary, Steve Reed made a solemn promise that the government was ‘committed to Biodiversity Net Gain’. Now, as Housing Secretary, he has broken his word and has weakened it to such an extent that a combined area across England the size of Windsor Forest will now not be restored for nature. It confirms that the majority of planning applications will not now contribute to nature’s recovery. This will see a significant chunk of jobs and private sector investment in nature’s recovery lost.
“This is happening because from Keir Starmer down, this Government seems to be wedded to an outdated, discredited old-world view that the choice before us is one of nature OR housing, even though there are plenty of examples of how you can have both, and even though it’s abundantly clear the British people want both. We should be working to rebuild our natural infrastructure alongside new housing and built infrastructure, not engage in tired old performative politics that trades one off against each other.”
Beccy Speight, Chief Executive of the RSPB, added: “Nature is in freefall. Wildlife that once thrived across England is now confined to reserves, stripped from our everyday lives. We’re losing something precious, something vital to our health and wellbeing. Four years after all parties promised to start nature’s recovery, we should be celebrating bold action. Instead, we’ve wasted months fighting a ‘developer’s charter’ that drags us backwards. This isn’t acceptable to us or our 1.2 million members. Government must stop scapegoating nature for economic woes – bats and newts account for only 3% of planning appeals. The real barriers are poor policy, land banking and skills shortages.
“The public gets it: two-thirds want developers to protect nature, and nearly three-quarters would back politicians who champion integrating housing with the natural world. As the Bill reaches its final stage, ministers must fix the Planning Bill, resist weakening BNG, and invest political capital where people want it: building communities where nature and people thrive together.”