The Wildlife Trust has issued a stark warning to Downing Street, urging a rethink on safeguards for green and blue spaces, the countryside and Britain’s few remaining wildernesses.
Policymakers are being asked to reconsider existing and inbound legislation that threatens nature. Environmentalists argue any further destruction of wildlife would reduce the country’s innate protections against increasingly extreme and volatile weather conditions. Paperwork under scrutiny includes the new Nuclear Regulation Bill, which has previously come under fire for the vague nature of waste disposal plans.
In a bid to emphasise the importance of retaining nature amid a worsening climate crisis, The Wildlife Trust has published a report, What Have The Habitats Regulations Ever Done For Us. This outlines how the years since Brexit have seen a worrying trend emerge, with legislation designed to protect nature often rolled out in a trial and error style, described as a ‘political piñata’.
The Conservative governments between 2020 and 2024 are particularly criticised for making ‘repeated attempts to weaken the Habitats regulation’, including a perceived ‘attack on nature’ in 2022, a term used by The Wildlife Trust, RSPB and National Trust alike.
2025’s Planning and Infrastructure Act, and the Nuclear Regulation Bill announced in May’s King’s speech, show how Keir Starmer’s regime continue this neglectful and irresponsible approach. which current Prime Minister Andy Burnham has now inherited. Green advocates now say the time has come to change course, and a new administration provides an invaluable opportunity to do that.
‘Attacks on these vital protections, as our report sets out, have been on shaky ground. In the wake of record wildfires, and after years of relentless pressure on these protections and all they do for nature and people, the Prime Minister must drop this discredited nature-bashing approach,’ said Matt Browne, head of public affairs at The Wildlife Trusts.
‘[This means] reconsidering the nature-harming Nuclear Bill inherited from Starmer, and focus instead on boosting national security in the face of accelerating environmental threats,’ he continued. ‘As England smoulders and the public worries about future summers, nature protection can help with dangerous weather and so much more – but only if Westminster will let it.’
Image: Alan Rodriguez / Unsplash
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