The government's full consultation paper can be viewed here.

In response to the proposals set out in the Government’s ‘Planning White Paper: Planning for the Future’, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has formulated a detailed response to the consultation questions, setting out our concerns. 

Overall Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has a number of serious concerns regarding the proposed changes to the planning system. While we agree there is some room for improvement within the current planning system, we also recognise that planning is a complicated practice involving multiple sectors and disciplines. We cannot afford to make such sweeping changes to the planning system without placing the natural environment at its heart and aligning it with Government’s ambition’s for Nature’s Recovery.

The main concerns that Warwickshire Wildlife Trust raised in our response are as follows:

• The data driven and strategic approaches mean that engagement in the planning system will be “front-loaded” using Zonal planning which fails to properly integrate nature
• Extensive use of permission in principle 
• A lack of integration of nature in developed areas and much more permitted development 
• Undermining of the democratic process and little opportunity to influence individual development proposals 
• Weakening of Environmental Impact Assessment, and changes in the system of wildlife and environmental protections  
• The proposals also fail to address the climate and ecological emergencies