Setting up a 'wildbelt' will protect nature from planning shake-up, conservationists say

The Wildlife Trusts warn that ministers’ ‘bias’ towards development threatens Britain’s biodiversity, writes Jane Dalton

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries and numbers of hedgehogs, along with other native species, have plummeted already (DPA/Getty Images)

An overhaul of England’s planning system must protect any land being returned to its natural state, classifying it as "wildbelt", conservationists say.

The Wildlife Trusts warn that the government’s proposed shake-up, with its “bias” towards development, weakens environmental protections and increases threats to nature.

The new official proposals will “make a bad situation worse” in one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet, they say.

Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, last month launched a plan to build more than 300,000 homes a year in England, creating zones in which development is automatically approved.

The government says the changes will speed up the planning process and tackle a shortage of quality homes.

The new scheme would use an algorithm to produce compulsory house-building targets for every council area, but the conservationists claim it will depend on non-existent data, so will fail nature.

The Wildlife Trusts say their analysis of the white paper shows the reforms will increase the threat to nature and do little to create better homes for wildlife and people.

The group of nature charities is calling on the government to commit to five principles in future planning that would ensure that the proposals “address the climate and ecological crises and people’s need for nature around them”.

One of the principles would, for the first time, protect land being allowed to grow wild, under the protection of a “wildbelt” scheme. If implemented, the trusts say, the wildbelt would be the first designation to “let nature be nature” and act as a sanctuary for nature to thrive. 

Efforts to create or restore natural habitat or rewild the area would be safe from future changes to land use, under the trusts’ plan.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has warned that the “mutant algorithm” of Mr Jenrick’s reforms would result in a “build and be damned” approach.

A new UN report has warned countries are failing to halt unprecedented declines in nature, missing all 20 targets agreed a decade ago to protect biodiversity by the deadline of this year.

And RSPB research found the UK had missed almost all of the targets, including failing to protect or manage enough land for nature.

Under the government plans the green belt would fall into the protected areas, but the trusts warn that much of the green belt is not wildlife-rich.

Landowners could choose to opt into the wildbelt scheme to secure their investment in conservation.

Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said: "We're in a climate and ecological crisis and we cannot afford to lose any more wildlife — we need a new Project Speed [Boris Johnson’s infastructure ‘new deal’] for nature.

"We must keep the environmental protections that we have – but even that is not enough. Protections must be strengthened, and the government needs to take a big step towards helping nature to recover everywhere.

“The new planning reforms currently propose an algorithm-based system that’s dependent on non-existent data. That’s a system that will fail nature and lead to more loss.”

Under the government overhaul, land will be classified into one of three categories – growth, renewal or protection.  

Mr Bennett added: “Evidence shows that healthy communities need nature, and the government must map out a ‘nature recovery network’ across every one of their proposed zones, whether it’s a growth, renewal or protected area.”

The other four principles the Wildlife Trusts are demanding are:

• Wildlife recovery and people's easy access to nature must be at the heart of reform, with space for nature's recovery identified and integrated into the planning system
• Nature protection policies must not be weakened, and environmental impact assessment must take place before development is permitted
• People must be able to engage with the new system, which critics have accused of being undemocratic
• Decisions must be based on up-to-date and accurate nature data

The Local Government Association fears the algorithm would mean a huge rise in construction in rural areas and southern England, while reducing development in the north.

Other environmentalists have predicted the shake-up will cost Britain decades in the fight against climate change and consign nature to “isolated fragments of land”. 

The Wildlife and Countryside Link has also warned the changes could mean sweeping losses of nature.