Government planning update for England: what’s new for nature

Last week the Government published the latest revision to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), and then over the weekend also published a planning reform working paper on development and nature recovery.

The main revisions to the NPPF are the already known relaxations to the Green Belt and the inclusion of “Grey Belt”, and no regression in the protection to nature but also not taking the opportunity to redefine the purpose of the Green Belt to include nature recovery. There is also now reference to Local Nature Recovery Strategies and to swift, bat and hedgehog features in building design.

In addition to the NPPF, we have the planning reform working paper, which is consulting on a number of questions aimed at enabling the delivery of 1.5 million new homes built over the next five years. The paper offers some suggestions on how the Government intends to address nutrient neutrality and Habitats Regulations related issues that it purports to be delaying housebuilding. We broadly agree that there needs to be more ‘upstream’ intervention and the Government has a bigger role to play, but caution that careful consideration needs to be taken of the ecosystem services provided by the Green Belt. The Government has also said that they will further explore opportunities around Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), including Small Sites which CIEEM has recently been working on.

We’ll be looking at the planning paper in the new year and submitting a CIEEM response. If you’d like to be involved do get in touch with policy@cieem.net.