Nature is not a blocker to housing growth and the government risks missing both its housing and nature targets if it views it as one, a cross-party group of MPs has warned in a new report.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill overrides existing habitat protections, which the government has suggested is a barrier to its target to build 1.5 million houses by the end of this parliament.

But in a report published on Sunday, the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) found the measures outlined in the bill are not enough to allow the government to meet its goals.

Richard Broadbent, Environmental lawyer at Freeths, said:

“It is good to see that the Environment Audit Committee challenge the narrative that nature is a “blocker” to housing delivery, arguing instead that a healthy environment is essential for resilient communities. That this is not axiomatic and has to be spelt out by the Committee to people who really ought to know better is a sad reflection on the sharp turn in rhetoric over the past year which has tried to make nature conservation a wedge issue politically. As anyone with even a moderate grasp on reality can see, both we and the communities we live in flourish most when we have access to both good quality development and thriving and functioning environments.  When we have the opportunity to, we move to places which do this well. We move away from places which do not.

England’s natural beauty is no accident. It is the result of centuries of thoughtful stewardship where communities have tried to create surroundings which are beautiful and in harmony with the landscapes which inspire and sustain us. For example, the great Gothic cathedrals which sit at the heart of most of our cities are gifts from our ancestors showing us what architecture in harmony with nature, light, and spiritually alert communities looks like.

As the Committee has said, the real barriers to delivering both the homes and the healthy environment that England needs are not environmental protections, but the complex, systemic details of how our planning and delivery systems operate. The Committee’s findings suggest that is actually our efforts should be focussed on the hard, less glamorous, work of improving things like cross-government coordination, fixing fragmented data systems, and addressing chronic skills shortages. The Committee also said that the Government’s proposed Environmental Delivery Plans which will be written by Natural England and signed off by Government will not “… guarantee solutions to systemic issues contributing to slow housebuilding rates, such as the lack of expertise and data”.

Legislating on the basis of false assumptions, such as the idea that environmental safeguards are the main obstacle to housebuilding, will not solve the real problems we now face. Instead of solving problems this risks creating new ones, undermining both our housing ambitions and our environmental commitments. History will not look kindly on our failure to address the true challenges which face us, either because it was too difficult or because we were persuaded by overly simplistic thinking.”