A report by the Office for Environmental Protection watchdog has confirmed that there is ‘no data or research to support the government argument that environmental legislation holds up building’.
Comments made publically by Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner that ‘nature is a blocker to development’ have been disproven.
Their comments legitimised the establishment of the ‘Nature Recovery Fund’ which essentially allows those undertaking development scutiny and impact assessments for location A to ‘discharge environmental obligations’ as long as some nature positive contribution was made at a location B.
You may recall the aforementioned Secretaries of State and Prime Minister railing on that protecting species like newts, bats and owls was impeding our ability to build build build the country to a better place. Those comments, now proven to be unsubstantiated, sought to promote a collective narrative in which legitimising harming nature to build houses and other infrastructure was acceptable.
Furthermore (anyone still reading ?) … the impact assessment (which i have linked to in my bio) also states that the solutions for nature and development which the government says the bill provides are ALREADY POSSIBLE within the current system without the need for new legislation.
The building of sustainable affordable homes is essential. Mistruthing in a position of authority in order to remove due process checks (which sought to prevent widescale biodiversity loss) in order to accelerate building isn’t essential.
Honesty and transparency matters.