Conserving and enhancing the natural environment

Chapter 19 replaces the current Chapter 15 of the NPPF on the natural environment, incorporating new legal requirements and a stronger focus on green infrastructure and nature-based solutions, while moving pollution and ground condition policies to a new dedicated chapter.

Areas of particular importance for biodiversity

Policy N6 clarifies the hierarchy of internationally, nationally, and locally designated biodiversity areas and irreplaceable habitats, introduces protections for locally designated sites, and anticipates Environmental Delivery Plans, with Local Nature Recovery Strategies helping authorities identify areas of particular importance for nature.

Question 183: Do you agree policy N6 provides clarity on the treatment of internationally, nationally and locally recognised site within the planning system?

Partly agree. The treatment is clear to the extent it sets out there’s another route for approval, in addition to complying with the Species and Habitats Regulations, via Environmental Delivery Plans. However, we don’t yet know precisely what will be in Environmental Delivery Plans or whether the Nature Restoration Levy will be sufficient to offset the harm caused. 

This is an area where there’s been significant public debate and we can understand the government’s aim to allow housing development to proceed where there’s a relatively minor environmental impact that’s difficult to offset in any other way than paying a levy. 

But there’s a risk these Environmental Delivery Plans could become quite extensive and there’s nothing we can see in the NPPF that will require these delivery plans to lead to adequate environmental protection.

On the one hand, the impact of the Species and Habitats Regulations, particularly along water courses, is well established. Previously, Natural England has introduced a policy called nutrient neutrality to provide greater certainty for developers on what their nutrients may lead to, but many developers have claimed this isn’t workable and have effectively put a break on development. The government estimates about 100,000 homes are delayed from the nutrient neutrality policy.

Yet we are concerned that a lot of the rhetoric coming from politicians is blaming environmental regulation for significantly slowing down housing delivery. However, in our opinion, the existing regulations already provided sufficient flexibility to allow housing to progress and the environment risks being scapegoated for delays in the planning process when in reality the reasons are much broader.