Amendment 130: last chance for Parliament to avoid the ‘cash to trash’ harm of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill

At this critical moment in the passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, we urge Peers to support Amendment 130, which would ensure that Environmental Delivery Plans can only be used to address diffuse development impacts – like water quantity, water quality and air quality.  

This amendment is the last real chance for Parliament to prevent Environmental Delivery Plans being used as a ‘cash to trash’ mechanism, allowing developers to build over protected sites or habitats for protected species in exchange for theoretical compensation elsewhere.

Environmental Delivery Plans could be a useful mechanism to address cumulative, landscape-scale problems like nutrient pollution, but their application to direct impacts on protected species and habitats is fraught with risk. 

We are closely involved in District Licensing, a strategic scheme for Great Crested Newts. That means we know how much preparatory work goes into ensuring that such schemes deliver real conservation benefits. For many species and habitats, strategic schemes simply aren’t suitable. The Environmental Delivery Plan system is open to abuse, and blind to these ecological nuances. 

We are not aware of a single environmental NGO that is not concerned about the misapplication of Environmental Delivery Plans to protected species and habitats. Amendment 130 will, in one stroke, remove the most dangerous element of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.