Opening new investment zones could ‘damage nature’

As of yesterday, Secretary of State for Housing, Levelling Up and Communities, Simon Clarke has opened applications for councils to invest in building on local areas around England.  

Local areas across England can now apply to host a new investment zone to deliver homes and create job opportunities.  

The government is looking to increase commercial and residential investment by encouraging councils to take advantage of the offer to lower taxes and streamlined planning rules.  

Pushing ahead with its plan on levelling up, the government is working with authorities to create planning that suites their area, while maintaining high environmental outcomes and keeping national Green Belt, a policy for controlling urban growth, protection in place.  

Discussions have begun in 38 councils, including Cornwall and Cumbria about proposals to convert open spaces into areas businesses can build on.  

However, creating new investment zones is removing basic site protections for habitats.  

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) sees the governments proposed plan as an ‘attack on nature’.  

🚨😡 As of last week, the UK Government has launched an attack on nature. We are angry and we are mobilising against these proposed plans. Please read this thread 1/7 👇 pic.twitter.com/AqgtLTVduE

— RSPB (@Natures_Voice) September 26, 2022

Within a Twitter post, the RSPB said: ‘A recently outlined Bill potentially tears up crucial environmental laws. These laws are the most fundamental legal protections for our remaining wildlife, waterways, and green ways.’  

The charity calls Mr Clark’s idea ‘one of the greatest threats in decades’ and comments that the ‘housing and commercial developments could be encouraged to damage nature with little or no restriction.’ 

The National Trust also took to Twitter to share their views, saying: ‘We’ll be working with other nature charities and supporters to defend important protections for nature long into the future.’  

As well as the government announcing yesterday that local authorities can potentially build on open land, this year communities across the UK were given £2.6n as Levelling Up funding so local elected leaders could control future regeneration plans. 

Photo by Aron Van de Pol