Government strips protections from the Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Housing secretary, Steve Reed, instructed Labour MPs to vote against a series of Planning and Infrastructure Bill amendments designed for a fairer, more sustainable planning system.

CPRE has been working closely with our allies in the Better Planning Coalition to ensure the Planning and Infrastructure Bill doesn’t undermine protections for the countryside and nature.

Earlier this year, we secured improvements from the government to strengthen the new environmental delivery plans in the Bill; and helped stop a proposal to scrap the heritage consent regime for transport projects.

But we’ve been campaigning for the Bill to go further. We were pleased that the House of Lords had added extra protections into the Bill in October, including:

• Making sure the government can’t ignore Parliament when changing National Policy Statements for major infrastructure
• Giving Parliament a say over regulations that decide which planning decisions are made by officers and which by councillors
• Providing greater protections for chalk streams in new sub-regional spatial development strategies
• Requiring spatial development strategies to prioritise brownfield land and urban densification
• Limiting the new environmental delivery plans to just four issues: nutrient neutrality, water quality, water resources and air quality.

But on Thursday, the government whipped their MPs to throw out all these positive improvements – a disappointing setback for nature, local democracy and responsible land use.

The Bill now returns to the House of Lords. We’re urging peers to restore these essential protections when they debate the Bill again on Monday 24 November.