Overview

• Chancellor Rachel Reeves has tasked HM Treasury with drafting options for a UK-only protected-species list that could remove certain bats and newts from current safeguards.
• Officials are assessing a shift from the EU’s precautionary principle to a risk-benefit test that would ease the requirement to prove no environmental harm before development.
• Draft proposals would cap judicial-review opportunities for campaigners to reduce legal delays on major infrastructure schemes.
• These new measures would build on the existing Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which includes a nature restoration fund allowing developers to offset habitat damage.
• Environmental organisations and rural Labour backbenchers have warned that rolling back EU-derived regulations risks undermining habitat recovery and fracturing party unity.