Otters and beavers among rare wildlife 'at serious risk' from new planning reforms

Otters, beavers and dormice are among the threatened wildlife that could be put at risk by new planning proposals, green groups have warned.

- EMILY BEAMENT

Senior ministers have pointed the finger at species such as bats, spiders and snails for holding up development of new housing and key infrastructure, and have proposed changes in planning rules they claim will work for growth and nature. As part of the proposed plans, developers could pay a levy for their impacts on nature.

A report from the Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) coalition of 90 nature organisations has warned of a “black hole” in evidence that the proposals to make developers pay a fee, rather than follow existing rules to protect wildlife, would work for many species.

Under the government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill, new environmental development plans would allow schemes that could harm legally protected sites or wildlife to pay a “nature restoration levy” to enable the habitat or species to be improved overall at a “strategic” scale.

The government has highlighted the “district level licensing” approach for great crested newts, which speeds up building schemes by replacing old measures to catch, count and move the amphibians with a faster system that charges developers for the creation of new high-quality habitat.

However, the report from WCL said that currently, great crested newts are the only species for which the strategic approach has been proven to be effective.