Planning bill will ‘avoid bat tunnels’, housing minister claims
The government hopes its planning reforms will “avoid bat tunnels”, the housing minister has said.
It comes as Labour unveiled major changes to the UK’s planning permissions system – as part of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill – with measures to overhaul how developers meet environmental obligations, replacing site-specific schemes with a general fund.
Speaking this morning, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said the changes would lead to “more sensible outcomes” than the £100m “bat tunnel” HS2 was required to build.
Asked whether the planning shake-up would mean no repeat of the bat protection scheme, Pennycook told Sky News: “Absolutely, we want to avoid bat tunnels.
“The bat tunnel is a symptom of a system that is failing to produce optimal outcomes, both in terms of development and in terms of nature recovery and restoration.”
He argued the government’s proposals would mean “more sensible outcomes”, adding: “Not… just protecting the animals in that particular location, but what can we do about the population of bats across a much wider area to restore and recover their population.”
The tunnel has become a lightning rod for criticism of the planning system, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer describing it as “absurd” and the Chancellor Rachel Reeves saying it summed up demands that made major infrastructure projects too slow and expensive.
Planning bill reaction
Some environmental groups have tentatively welcomed the proposals but pushed back against the claim they are “blockers” in the planning system and called for more guarantees.
Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, called for a “guarantee all planning decisions must be compatible with nature and climate targets, more protection for irreplaceable habitats and nature recovery areas and new regulations for biodiversity”.
The changes to environmental rules are part of a wide-ranging bill that ministers hope will mean faster approvals for projects such as housing developments and major infrastructure.
These include streamlining the process so more decisions are made by planning officers rather than elected councillors, a crackdown on “meritless” legal challenges to major projects and a reduction in the number of bodies legally required to be consulted on applications.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said the Bill would “unleash seismic reforms” and create “the biggest building boom in a generation” by “lifting the bureaucratic burden”.
The government also hopes it will help meet its target of building 1.5m new homes by the next election, which would mean around 300,000 homes per year, but the latest data shows just 221,450 homes were completed in the year to September 2024, a seven per cent fall.
Dr Kristian Niemietz, head of political economy at the free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), commented: “The planning reforms announced today contain several steps in the right direction, because they will close off some of the entry portals for lifestyle NIMBYism.
“But the emphasis is very much on “streamlining” the existing system, as opposed to overhauling it. If all goes according to plan, the planning bill will deliver a speedier and tidier version of the system we have.
“But what will stop that system from cluttering up again over time? What will keep the momentum going when the government runs out of steam, or is replaced by a less development-friendly one?”
He added: “The government should have been bolder. They should have aimed for something more akin to the successful prewar planning system, which delivered the great building boom of the 1930s.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation (BPF), said while there was “a lot to welcome” in the bill, including housing targets being “allocated more sensibly”, she stressed it was “vital that all of this is adequately resourced” in the spending review.
Energy scheme
The bill is also expected to include plans for a scheme that will give households living within 500 metres of new electricity pylons up to £250 a year off their energy bills over ten years.
The discounts will be funded by a small increase in bills for people in other parts of the UK, but Pennycook said the government expects this to be only between 80p and £1.50 per year.
He added: “Over the long run, because we are deploying more renewable energy, more homegrown, clean energy, the cost of everyone’s bills will come down.”