UK charities urge ministers to stop scapegoating nature for planning failures

Exclusive: RSPB and National Trust among groups saying rhetoric from Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer at odds with public sentimentNature charities with a combined membership of about 8 million people are pressing the prime minister and chancellor to stop demonising wildlife and to urgently strengthen environmental protections in new planning laws.Organisations which are household names, such as the RSPB, the National Trust and the Wildlife Trusts, are calling on MPs to back amendments to the planning and infrastructure bill to end what they say is the scapegoating of nature for the failures of the planning system. They say the anti-nature rhetoric employed by Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer, who has labelled environmental objectors as "blockers", is at odds with public sentiment. Continue reading...