Broken promises: new planning rules mean nature will suffer.
Before the Election, Rachel Reeves said she wanted to be 'Britain's first green Chancellor'. But now she has the role, her actions are saying something very different.
The Chancellor has claimed that Nature is a 'blocker' to growth and has pledged to 'rip out' environmental protections. In fact, scientific evidence and Government advisers all say that a healthy environment is crucial for growth to happen.
The Chancellor’s threats have been followed up by a draft Planning and Infrastructure Bill which threatens to disconnect us from the natural world, betraying millions of people and breaking all the promises which Ministers made before the Election to restore nature.
Remove Part 3 of the Bill - and save nature.
After months of trying hard to work in partnership on the Bill to ensure it can work for people and for nature, constructive solutions from experts (supported by tens of thousands of the public) and the Government’s own environmental watchdog have all been ignored. So we now must call on the UK Government to completely remove the section of the Bill that threaten nature’s recovery. This is called Part 3 (ironically titled 'Development and Nature Recovery’).
This is the only way Ministers can repair trust with nature groups, and the best way the Government can meet its legal and moral commitments to the natural world.
Wild places need to be thriving again so public health can improve and the economy can grow. Britain's shared love of nature is held dear by generations of residents, visitors and friends. This is true from the greenest street trees to the high hedges of the countryside, from the blue waters of our coast to the duck ponds of our parks, and the air at the tips of our mountains.
Get involved today
The Government promised to protect precious wild spaces. Please remind your MP about this, and ask them to think very carefully about why those promises should be kept.
We can help you find your MP and write your own mesage to add to ours. Your email will be copied to Rachel Reeves, Chancellor, so she can see which MPs are being contacted and better understand why this matters to everyday people.