The FT is reporting that the Government’s planning system reforms are putting thousands of jobs at risk. But for once, this may not be the bad news that it seems. “The planning and infrastructure bill,” explains the paper, “is intended to ‘get Britain building’ and remove obstructive regulation.” One of the obstructions to construction in Britain has been the requirement that proposed development sites are not home to endangered species, and that developers have minimised the potential ecological impact. And this has even affected so-called ‘green’ developments, including wind and solar farms. The green agenda had begun to eat itself, so something had to give. And, having destroyed much of Britain’s industries and businesses, the green agenda has come for the very ecologists who drove it.
In the 1990s, as Shire Tories broke bread with the Greta Thunbergs of the time – the anti-bypass protesters – it was ultimately a rare species of tiny snail that proved to be the most effective obstruction. Since then, as all Westminster parties have, in lockstep, sought to expand environmental bureaucracies to remake Britain in Gaia’s image, there has been ever less political appetite for new roads, factories and homes, despite a growing population. This endless bureaucratisation of nature seemed to reach a peak under the previous government, which agreed, among other things, that 30% of the UK’s land area should be “protected for nature” by 2030 – a target agreed by the 2022 UN biodiversity summit.
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