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Labour is set to “bulldoze” vital environmental protections which could put Britain’s ancient woods and trees in line for the chopping block, experts have warned. Nature groups, such as the Woodland Trust, have slammed the Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill which is making its way through Parliament.

The bill allows housebuilders to pay into a nature restoration fund to improve habitats on another site, which could be anywhere in the country, rather than avoiding disturbance to nature where they are building. Darren Moorcroft, CEO of the Woodland Trust, said: “As it stands, the government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill is set to bulldoze most of the existing environmental protections the public have fought for over the past fifty years and put our nation’s irreplaceable ancient woods and trees in line for the chopping block.

“Instead of requiring developers to avoid destroying important habitats, like ancient trees and woodlands, incorporating them into their designs or working around them wherever possible.

“The new Bill would move us to a system where any developer with deep enough pockets could be given a free pass to destroy a 500-year-old tree, as long as they pay into a fund that helps nature elsewhere. Most school children could tell you that nature doesn’t work that way.”

Labour’s planning bill threatens protected habitats, warned green watchdog the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP).

It called for the bill to be strengthened and for safeguards of protected nature sites to be included.

Dame Glenys Stacey, the chair 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.”

The Wildlife Trusts and RSPB are among the groups demanding a rethink of the bill.

Angela Rayner this week rejected accusations Labour will be “bulldozing over the greenbelt” or compromising on protections for nature to build homes faster.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that proposals to give a boost to smaller developers, which will ease the requirements for them to pay to boost nature habitats, were “pragmatism” and that the Government will be able to “protect nature at the same time”.

The Government has set out proposals to cut red tape and for planning decisions to be shifted away from councillors and towards expert officers as part of efforts to meet Labour’s pledge to build 1.5 million homes by 2029-30.

A government spokesman said: “This Government inherited a failed system that blocks homes, infrastructure, economic growth and does nothing for nature’s recovery.

“The Nature Restoration Fund will secure lasting improvements for nature and help fix the failed status quo. We note the support of the Office for Environmental Protection for the intentions behind our reforms and will carefully consider their advice.”