A planning system that helps nature recover

By 2030 we must see nature recovering, wildlife returning and ecosystems restored. The General Election on 4 July 2024 saw us vote in the Government and parliament that will be largely responsible for steering us towards a wilder 2030. The Trust has identified five key policy priorities that must be addressed to halt and reverse species decline and ensure a positive future for all. Here we take a closer look at reforming our planning system. 

We know it is possible to plan for great communities that balance and support the needs of both people and wildlife.  

In fact, by putting nature at the heart of planning and development you can not only safeguard and restore our vital natural habitats and species and ensure that we all have a plentiful supply of clean water and air, but you can also create better, healthier, and more desirable places to live.  

Inappropriate or poor-quality development harms nature and communities. But good planning can help protect wildlife and secure its recovery, by protecting and restoring  well-connected wild places. Good design can help improve the health and wellbeing of the local community, increase resilience to our changing climate through flood management and urban cooling, and connect people to nature, by creating green and wild spaces for people and wildlife to enjoy.    

Promoting nature and greenspace through planning also has wider benefits for our resilience to climate change, by providing natural flood mitigation and urban cooling.   

Our counties are under huge pressure from continual development, with some proposals, like those for Tipner West in Portsmouth, threatening to further diminish nature’s chances of recovery.  We need a system that can help us plan for a wilder and more sustainable future.  

We need our candidates, decision makers, and politicians to ensure that planning guides development that gives more to nature than it takes away - actively contributing to restoration by increasing the space where wildlife can thrive. To do this, we need the following: 

• Nature’s recovery needs more weight in the planning – Nature often loses out in planning relative to other considerations. Too often, the focus is on quantity rather than quality. To change this, we need the law to be clear that our planning system must consistently support our nature recovery goals.  

• Local nature recovery plans must have real influence – Local Authorities across England are producing local Nature Recovery Strategies as a consequence of the Environment Act. However, these must be given a clear, meaningful influence in planning and decision making if they are to make a real difference. These strategies should provide a spatial foundation for planning decisions, outlining where nature is and where it needs to be.  The LNRS must be clearly connected to the mechanisms for delivery, such as biodiversity net gain.  

• We need more nature-friendly building standards and policies – the national rules and polices governing new development must do more to enhance the local environment. All developments should deliver at least 20% ‘net gain’ for nature, relative to what was there before, and prevent the misuse of exemptions. In addition, we need more national policies to consistently deliver nature-friendly design, such as tree canopy cover targets, requirements for swift and bee bricks, and measures to discourage artificial grass. 

•  ‘Wild belts’ - To safeguard nature’ recovery, we need a new planning designation, or ‘wild belts’ to help protect and link up ribbons of land intended to support nature’s recovery.  

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