July 2025

Government proposes amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill proposes a significant restructure of the regulatory framework regarding development and nature protection, seeking to enable development through a new approach to environmental protection. The main reforms in the Bill are discussed in our March news article.

The original drafting calls for the creation of Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) that could disapply the Wildlife and Countryside Act, the Habitats Regulations and/or the Badger Protection Act for any relevant ‘environmental feature/s’, provided that the Housing Secretary is persuaded that the mitigation and enhancement measures set out in an EDP would be ‘likely’ to enhance the ‘environmental feature/s’. EDPs would be funded by developers contributing to a new Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) administered by Natural England.

The Bill has been subject to considerable feedback from interested parties, including from the government’s own Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), who have emphasised that the Bill would have the effect of reducing the level of environmental protection provided for by existing environmental law. One significant area of concern is that the Bill will undermine the application of the mitigation hierarchy (avoid, mitigate, compensate) as this is not currently referenced. Similarly, there is no requirement for biodiversity gains to be in place before damage from development occurs. As a consequence, the Bill has been subject to several amendments as it has progressed through Parliament. These include:

• The introduction of an ‘overall improvement test’: namely that the Secretary of State must be satisfied that the conservation measures in an EDP will materially outweigh the environmental harm caused by the development prior to granting permission
• Natural England is required to include remedial or fallback measures in an EDP, to be used if the primary conservation actions fail to deliver their intended outcome
• Natural England must provide evidence within the EDP that compensation will be delivered and achieve its objectives
• EDPs to include a timeline for when actions will be implemented
• Limits on the use of the Nature Restoration Fund to offset damage to a short list of irreplaceable habitats e.g. ancient woodland

The OEP has welcomed the government’s response to its comments, although the conservation sector and industry as a whole remain largely of the view that the Bill as currently drafted will lead to a weakening of current environmental protections. Progress of the Bill through parliament can be followed here.

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