Planning bill 'threat to English nature'

More than 5,000 of England's most sensitive, rare and protected natural habitats are at high risk of being destroyed by development under Labour's new planning bill, according to legal analysis of the legislation.

- Sandra Laville, Patrick Barkham, Helena Horton

The Guardian has examined the threat the bill poses to 5,251 areas known as nature's "jewels in the crown", as some of the country's most respected wildlife charities call for a key part of the bill to be scrapped.

The areas at risk from Labour's planning changes include cherished landscapes such as the New Forest, the Surrey heaths, the Peak District moors, and the Forest of Bowland.

Rivers such as the Itchen in Hampshire and the Wensum in Norfolk are also put at risk by the bill. The thousands of protected habitats are locations for threatened British wildlife such as nightingales, badgers, dormice, otters, butterflies, dragonflies, kingfishers, tufted ducks and egrets.

The planning and infrastructure bill is the product of the government's promise to build 1.5m homes to help address the UK's housing affordability crisis and to approve 150 major infrastructure projects in this parliament.

The government says the bill, currently going through parliament, does not weaken environmental protections. But according to three separate legal opinions, the legislation will roll back protections and make it easier for developers to build on areas that have historically been protected under UK and international law.