Nature “not a blocker” to housebuilding – Environmental Audit Committee

Nature is not a “blocker” to building new housing but a necessity for delivering resilient towns and neighbourhoods, according to the House of Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee.

The cross-party Committee’s report, Environmental sustainability and housing growth, criticised what it called “the lazy narrative” that nature is an “inconvenience to delivering housing”.

It pointed out other factors “standing in the way of meeting both our housebuilding and environmental targets”, including skills shortages and a lack of incentives for green homes.

In the report, the Committee stated that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is in its final stages, was not sufficient for the government to meet both its environmental and housing targets, despite the Committee supporting the government’s amendments to the Bill last month.

In October, the government announced amendments “to get Britain building faster”, including proposing new ministerial powers to prevent local authorities from rejecting planning applications.

The Committee said that a “nature blocker” approach “could lead to the degradation of the natural world, preventing the achievement of legally binding climate and nature targets, upon which our society and economy depend”.

The report also questioned the government’s 1.5 million new homes target with a lack of …