England risks becoming Europe's 'bargain basement' on nature laws
Proposed UK planning rules that let developers bypass environmental protections for minimal payments could give English builders a major cost advantage over their EU rivals.
Over 100 scientists, businesses and public figures have called on incoming prime minister Andy Burnham to halt new planning regulations ahead of a House of Lords vote on Wednesday.
The nature restoration levy regulations 2026 would make environmental delivery plans operational under the Planning and Infrastructure Act. These plans allow developers in England and Wales to sidestep environmental laws by paying into a national nature fund instead of directly mitigating harm to local habitats.
This framework disappplies protections derived from the EU habitats directive, which every EU member state still applies in full. Alexa Culver, a planning lawyer at RSK Wilding, warned in a submission to the Lords that England could become Europe’s “bargain basement”. English developers could therefore face a fraction of the environmental costs imposed on their French, German, Dutch and Irish counterparts.
Campaigners have labelled the scheme "cash to trash". Culver raised concerns that the regulations grant the secretary of state unchecked power to alter payment rates at will, without consulting Natural England or developers. She warned this vulnerability to lobbying could allow the government to “set the price of environmental destruction as low as they like”, potentially dropping it to £1.
The pushback follows a recent report by the joint intelligence committee, which oversees MI5 and MI6, warning that the global attack on nature threatens the UK’s national security and food supply. Signatories including Stephen Fry, Chris Packham, Ben Goldsmith and Labour donor Dale Vince argue the plans reverse decades of biodiversity protections “precisely when those protections are needed the most”.
A government spokesperson pushed back against the criticism, insisting the current system fails both nature and people. The spokesperson said the new plans “will secure better environmental outcomes that go further than current legislation: not just preventing harm to existing habitats and species but actively restoring and improving them.”
