28 March 2025, 09:44

By Dr Tom Tew

For over 70 years, the UK has sought to protect its rarest wildlife, ensuring that development and conservation can coexist.

From groundbreaking laws like the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act to the Environment Act 40 years later, the UK has led the world in safeguarding its natural heritage. Good environmental legislation was a source of pride earlier in my career as Chief Scientist at Natural England, and it’s an ethos we’ve carried on at NatureSpace, delivering a Strategic Licensing scheme that works well for developers, planners and great crested newts.

But this ethos is under threat. This month, the Government introduced a new draft law that threatens to undermine all of this — one that will harm wildlife, fundamentally weaken environmental laws and, paradoxically, create uncertainty for developers that will slow them down. The so-called Nature Restoration Levy is essentially a standard tax on development, albeit marketed as a solution that will benefit both the environment and accelerate housebuilding.

Under this proposal, developers would pay into a fund managed by Natural England so as to offset the environmental impact of their projects. Natural England would then create plans outlining conservation measures for specific areas affected........

© LBC