What will the Planning and Infrastructure Bill mean for freshwater?
21st March 2025
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, introduced to Parliament on 11th March, proposes sweeping changes to the way development’s impacts on nature are assessed and mitigated.
The Bill lays the groundwork for a Nature Restoration Levy, paid by developers where a development impacts a protected species or site covered in an Environmental Delivery Plan.
Recent rhetoric from the Prime Minister and others, unhelpfully framing nature as a blocker to development, casts some doubt on the Government’s motivations in making these proposals. Done right, we think the Planning and Infrastructure Bill’s reforms could represent a genuine step forward for addressing the impacts of development. However, like many of our colleagues across the environmental sector, we are concerned that the provisions set out in the bill could pave the way for a regression in environmental protections.
Piecemeal site-level mitigation has mostly failed to stop the decline of protected species and habitats (whether caused by development or, in many cases, other pressures). The joined-up, strategic approaches proposed by the Bill could change that. The devil will be in the detail, and it’s vital that the Bill sets up a framework with strong guardrails against flawed or inappropriate strategic schemes.
District licensing: a strategic approach to protecting Great Crested Newts
Successful existing strategic schemes offer a model to follow. For example, since 2018 we have worked with Amphibian and Reptile Conservation in the Newt Conservation Partnership, creating habitat for Great Crested Newts to address development impacts through NatureSpace’s District Licensing programme. District Licensing has delivered consistently good results for Great Crested Newts – and wider freshwater biodiversity. It offers a template for the kind of strategic approach which the Planning and Infrastructure Bill ought to promote. Note that this scheme (like others) operates under the Habitats Regulations as they stand.
Following consultation earlier this year, we’re pleased to see that the Bill makes provision for ‘designated persons’ to take on responsibility for producing and administrating Environmental Delivery Plans. If applied to private and third sector organisations, as well as public bodies, this caveat could enable the collaborative public-private-third sector model pioneered by NatureSpace to continue operating and, where appropriate, be applied elsewhere to address different development impacts. District Licensing offers a template for the kind of strategic approach which the Planning and Infrastructure Bill ought to enable. As the Planning and Infrastructure Bill passes through Parliament, we hope that Government champions this innovative model.
Safeguarding high-quality and irreplaceable freshwater habitats
Throughout the Bill, we hope to see Government maintain a sustained focus on ensuring strong safeguards for nature. At the heart of our strategy to build the Freshwater Network is the simple, powerful concept of protecting the best remaining habitats and building out from there. We know that preserving high-quality habitats is vital as a foundation for broader ecological recovery. To uphold this principle, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill must provide full protection for an expanded list of irreplaceable habitats, within a framework which respects scientific evidence, mandates ongoing monitoring, and guarantees measurably better outcomes for species or habitats affected by a development.
The Bill is scheduled for second reading on 24th March – and we’ll be watching the debate with great interest.