Ministers have been accused of “ripping out” wildlife protection laws in proposed new rules. Green watchdog the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has said the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will reduce environmental protections.

Dame Glenys Stacey, chairwoman of the OEP, said: “There are fewer protections for nature written into the Bill than under existing law. Creating new flexibility without sufficient legal safeguards could see environmental outcomes lessened over time. And aiming to improve environmental outcomes overall, whilst laudable, is not the same as maintaining in law high levels of protection for specific habitats and species.  

“In our considered view, the Bill would have the effect of reducing the level of environmental protection provided for by existing environmental law. As drafted, the provisions are a regression.”

There is nothing in the Government’s planning reforms to stop housebuilders destroying nature in one area and restoring it hundreds of miles away, officials have admitted.

Labour’s plans to build 1.5million homes this parliament depend on overhauling planning rules to allow developers to start construction before undertaking any local environmental mitigation, as they do now. 

Instead, they will be allowed to pay into a “nature restoration fund” to create habitat elsewhere later.

Becky Pullinger, head of land use planning at The Wildlife Trusts, says: “It is ever clearer that nature will lose out from the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. As currently drafted, the Bill stands to rip up the very foundations of our wildlife protection laws.”

Ingrid Samuel, placemaking and heritage director at the National Trust, said ministers must heed this clear warning from their own watchdog. 

She added: “Instead of leaving communities even more deprived of wildlife, the Bill must be amended to guarantee protections for both people and nature.” 

Ali Plummer, director of policy and advocacy at Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “When the Government’s own watchdog brands the Planning and Infrastructure Bill environmental regression, ministers can’t ignore it.

“This Bill would weaken legal safeguards in favour of vague promises – abandoning the gold-standard Habitats Regulations and risking the loss of the tried-and-tested mitigation hierarchy. The Bill is a clear watering down of protections but there is still time to amend it, resulting in wins for both development, communities and wildlife.

"England deserves policies that raise the bar for nature and neighbourhoods nationwide, not roll it back. Now is the time for the Government to recognise the problems with the Bill and get it back on track."

The Government has been contacted for comment.