The Planning and Infrastructure Bill: nature’s not for sale

What’s the Planning and Infrastructure Bill?

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is a proposed law currently making its way through parliament. Through the bill, the UK government aims to make it easier and faster for developers to build much-needed houses and other key infrastructure.

It also claims that the bill is a win-win for growth and nature restoration. But in reality, the government is scapegoating nature laws for planning delays. It’s treating vital nature protections as barriers to development and the economy.

How does the bill threaten nature and communities?

The UK is already one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. So we can’t afford to lose yet more of our precious wildlife and habitats.

But the Planning and Infrastructure Bill poses a serious threat to nature. Here are some of the key issues:

• It weakens existing nature laws, which means our environment will be less protected.
• It removes the legal requirement for developers to avoid harm to nature as their first priority.
• It allows developers to veto any measures to help nature that they view as too costly for their projects.
• It drums up anti-nature rhetoric that’s inaccurate and harmful – even demonising wildlife species like bats and newts for slow development.
• It risks overly relying on compensation to restore nature, which means improving nature in some places to compensate for harming it in others – more on this below…

What’s the Nature Restoration Fund?

One key concern is the bill’s creation of a dubious Nature Restoration Fund. The fund would allow developers to damage nature, as long as they pay for nature restoration elsewhere. Where signed off by the Secretary of State, they could make a one-off payment into the fund and then proceed with their development as planned.

This form of offsetting is a licence to harm nature. It’s been referred to as “cash to trash,” essentially allowing developers to chip in a few quid to trash nature. Compensatory schemes like this should always be a last resort – avoiding harm to nature must be the first priority for developers.

What’s the impact on communities?

Another worrying aspect of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is its impact on communities. The bill will take more planning decisions away from planning committees and put them into the hands of unelected officers. That means developers will effectively be able to bypass crucial committee scrutiny for a wider range of development types, including a new “medium” scale of housing development.

This undermines local democracy. Without local standards in place, there’s nothing to ensure communities will be given a proper say in the planning decisions that really affect them.

What’s the latest on the bill?

Thanks to thousands of people telling their MPs they don’t want the bill to undermine the UK’s nature and ecosystems, ministers have now offered some concessions.

In July 2025, the government published a package of amendments to address the issues raised by concerned citizens and the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP). But while it welcomed the changes, the OEP said the bill would still “lower environmental protection”.

As far as we’re concerned, weaker nature laws simply isn’t good enough. Ministers claim their tweaks fix everything – but this is window dressing because the flaws remain.

When will the Planning and Infrastructure Bill become law?

The bill is currently making its way through the parliamentary process. You can keep up to date on its progress via parliament’s website.

At the time of writing it’s being reviewed by the House of Lords, and after that it’ll go back to the House of Commons, most likely in late October. It’ll keep bouncing between the 2 Houses – in a process known as “ping pong” – until they both agree on amendments to the bill. That means now is the time to secure vital changes.

Once agreed by both Houses, the bill will become law at some point later this year or in 2026.  

How can nature and growth go hand in hand?

Building homes while protecting nature

We know the UK has a housing crisis that needs urgently addressing. But having enough homes and thriving communities doesn’t have to come at the cost of precious nature and wildlife.

We need good-quality housing that’s designed and built sustainably, well located and properly served by local facilities, transport and green space. This can be done without demolishing habitats and ecosystems. Many previously developed sites provide opportunities. And even some green belt land that’s largely devoid of nature due to intensive farming could be suitable in some instances.

The UK could also make better use of second homes and empty homes to help alleviate the housing crisis.

Ultimately, high-quality development can and should be good for nature. For example, developments can create woodland, improve wildlife corridors, manage flooding, rewild former farmland and build or restore man-made structures used by species like bats. There are a few better developers trying to do the right thing. But change in the sector is slow and reluctant.

Learn more about housing and the planet.

What about green infrastructure?

The bill will apply to most developments, except perhaps some small sites. This means that it should be easier to build new infrastructure, including for clean energy like solar farms.

Of course we don’t blindly support renewable energy schemes, for example those that would harm protected nature sites. But projects that are well designed, located and built can protect and restore nature, for example by boosting biodiversity and pollinators.

Learn more about where renewable energy infrastructure could go.

How can we take action?

Who’s calling for change?

Over 110,000 Friends of the Earth supporters have already demanded the UK government rethinks the bill. And it’s not just us calling for action.

Many charities, professional bodies, legal experts and businesses are demanding change. These include the RSPB, the Better Planning Coalition, the Wildlife Trusts and the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. So there’s real momentum behind the campaign for a truly better bill.

What changes to the bill do we want to see?

Friends of the Earth is demanding a complete re-think of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill – not just amendments – with a focus on proper community involvement and nature protections we can count on. The bill must be a genuine win-win for both nature and growth. And it mustn’t be filled with vague wording and loopholes that leave precious species, habitats and ecosystems without proper safeguards. 

Ask your MP to write to the Prime Minister and tell him to drop the worst bits of the bill. 

And sign the petition to ensure developers aren’t given a green light to trash nature.