Nature groups rebuke Reeves for ‘cynical’ 11th-hour planning bill changes
Last-minute changes to the government’s planning bill have sparked a furious backlash from nature groups who have mounted an attack on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, over her plans to remove environmental protections.The changes to the legislation come as it enters its final stages before being signed into law.Promoted by Reeves, they are designed to make it easier for developers to side-step environmental laws in order to build major projects such as AI datacentres.They include new powers for the government to overrule local democracy if councils refuse developments based on environmental grounds, or on issues such as water shortages.But in outspoken attacks on the chancellor, charities including household names such as the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts say Reeves is seeking to grab short-term growth headlines to save her budget, rather than well-thought-out reforms to planning.
Reeves is pushing for the planning bill to be passed before her budget on 26 November so that she is able to factor it into forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which could give her about £3bn extra breathing room against her own debt rules.The charities have spent months working with ministers in an attempt to forge the best planning bill to ensure growth and nature recovery go hand in hand.Dr James Robinson, the RSPB’s chief operating officer, said: “Dropping 67 amendments to the planning bill at the 11th hour isn’t just poor process, it’s legislative chaos.There’s no time for proper scrutiny, no clarity on the cumulative impact, and no confidence this is about good planning rather than political optics.“It looks like a cynical attempt to game a better forecast from the OBR, rather than a serious effort to fix the planning system.
”The intervention by Reeves into the landmark bill comes after she was filmed boasting about her closeness to a major developer after she intervened to lift legal blocks to their housing plans,The objections to 21,000 homes being built in Sussex concerned water shortages and concerns over the amount of water being taken from rivers and wetlands in the Arun Valley, which risked affecting protected wildlife and local water resources,The MP for Horsham, John Milne, has criticised the chancellor’s intervention, stating that it was top-down government at its worst,“This decision rides roughshod over the work that Horsham district council has been carrying out to find a balanced solution,”One amendment promoted by Reeves would allow more central government intervention in local decision making.
It allows the secretary of state to overrule councils that refuse permission for projects, even if they have legitimate concerns on environmental grounds, or there are issues relating to water shortages.The amendment is designed to ease the path of major infrastructure projects, for example AI datacentres, which create vast amounts of CO2 and put huge pressure on water resources.Alexa Culver, an environmental lawyer from RSK Wilding, said: “For the first time, the secretary of state will be able to make orders that prevent refusals of planning permission by planning authorities.“This could direct authorities to ignore real-world infrastructure and environmental constraints – like water shortages – to allow harmful development through that leaves local communities stranded.”Joan Edwards, director of policy and public affairs at the Wildlife Trusts, said Reeves was trying to grab headlines about growth measures before her budget.
“The chancellor continues to fail to understand that a healthy natural environment underpins a healthy economy,These performative amendments represent neither a win for development or the economy, and promise only delay and muddle in planning and marine policy,”Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said the government’s race to speed up planning decisions would fall flat on its face if it did not include the environment at its core,“Last-minute changes to the bill are being made in a hurried and piecemeal approach,” he said,“This kind of scatter-gun policymaking doesn’t give businesses or investors the certainty they need to drive growth, and it puts the UK’s irreplaceable natural environment at risk.
”Government officials have said the amendments were required in part because an earlier watering-down of the bill in the summer had damaged investor confidence,However, no data has been provided to back this claim,The government said that, if passed, each of these “pro-growth changes” would accelerate its “plan for change” to build 1,5m homes, achieve clean power by 2030 and raise living standards across the country,Steve Reed, the housing secretary, said: “Britain’s potential has been shackled by governments unwilling to overhaul the stubborn planning system that has erected barriers to building at every turn.
It is simply not true that nature has to lose for economic growth to succeed.“Sluggish planning has real-world consequences.Every new house blocked deprives a family of a home.Every infrastructure project that gets delayed blocks someone from a much-needed job.This will now end.
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Adani denies claims it sold ‘below-market coal’ leading to Queensland missing out on hundreds of millions in royalties
Adani has consistently sold coal from its Queensland mine far below market rates, according to claims made in new analysis, potentially reducing the royalties owed to the state government by hundreds of millions of dollars.The research director at the Australia Institute, Rod Campbell, calculated that Adani sold thermal coal from its Carmichael mine at an average of just over $A100 a tonne during the 2023 to 2025 financial years – its first three full years of operation.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailThe period saw huge coal price spikes after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Australian benchmark prices surging above $A600/t in late 2022, before moderating.Even allowing for discounted prices for Adani’s lower-quality coal, Campbell said the difference between the “realised price and expected market price is huge”.“This discrepancy means that royalty payments were far lower than might have been expected
Don’t give in to big pharma on drug pricing | Letters
While the chief executive of Eli Lilly may lament the UK’s drug prices (UK is ‘worst country in Europe’ for drug prices, says Mounjaro maker, 24 September), the NHS should celebrate them. The system put in place for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of new drugs is respected the world over and is successful in applying the principle that funding a new product should not damage the NHS as a whole. This principle of cost-effectiveness has led to widespread price reductions for the NHS that have allowed the service as a whole to benefit.The chief executive of Eli Lilly links the recent pausing or cancelling of pharmaceutical industry investments in the UK to drug pricing here, when these are down to the drug companies’ desperation to kowtow to Donald Trump.Further to this, the talk of increasing Nice’s cost-effectiveness threshold, and even index-linking this, is a disgrace (NHS could pay 25% more for medicines under plan to end row with drugmakers and Trump, 8 October)
Driverless taxis from Waymo will be on London’s roads next year, US firm announces
People in London could be hiring driverless taxis from Waymo next year, after the US autonomous vehicle company announced plans to launch its services there.The UK capital will become the first European city to have an autonomous taxi service of the kind now familiar in San Francisco and four other US cities using Waymo’s technology.The launch pits an innovation sometimes dubbed the “robotaxi” against London’s famous black cabs, which can trace their history back to the first horse-drawn hackney coaches of the Tudor era.But a representative of the capital’s cab drivers said they were not concerned by the arrival of a “fairground ride” and questioned the reliability of driverless vehicles.Waymo said its cars were now on their way to London and would start driving on the capital’s streets in the coming weeks with “trained human specialists”, or safety drivers, behind the wheel
iPhone Air review: Apple’s pursuit of absolute thinness
The iPhone Air is a technical and design marvel that asks: how much are you willing to give up for a lightweight and ultra-slender profile?The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Beyond the obvious engineering effort that has gone into creating one of the slimmest phones ever made, the Air is a reductive exercise that boils down the iPhone into the absolute essentials in a premium body.Cut away the rear cameras, slim down the battery, remove the stereo speakers and maximise the screen, and what is left is an impressive sliver of titanium and glass
Could Trump really move World Cup games? The facts behind his threats
Which time? Tuesday was the second time Trump has threatened to take away World Cup games from US host cities on the basis of their political leadership or opposition to his policies. However, it’s important to note that this suggestion of moving games is not something Trump has suggested organically, of his own volition. In both cases, the US president was responding to leading questions centered around the idea of moving games. On 25 September in an Oval Office event, a member of the White House press corps asked Trump about cities that have demonstrated against Trump’s use of federal agencies for immigration and crime crackdowns. The reporter mentioned Seattle and San Francisco as two cities that have seen demonstrations, and pointed out that both cities are World Cup hosts (though San Francisco is not a host city, but part of the San Francisco Bay Area that will host games at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara)
Rain saves England at Women’s World Cup and ruins Pakistan hopes of historic win
Pakistan came agonisingly close to a first one-day international win against England in Colombo on Wednesday, reaching 34 without loss in pursuit of a DLS-adjusted target of 113 before torrential downpours curtailed their hopes of making history.England’s batting has lurched from one disaster to another during this World Cup – they had to be bailed out by Heather Knight against Bangladesh and by Nat Sciver-Brunt against Sri Lanka – and it looked like their frailties would return as they collapsed to 79 for seven in the opening 25 overs.After an initial rain delay of almost four hours, England returned to add 54 further runs – but Pakistan’s openers Muneeba Ali and Omaima Sohail looked to be making short work of the chase, assisted by the absence of strike bowlers Lauren Bell and Sophie Ecclestone through illness. Only further rain saved England’s blushes.“Pakistan bowled brilliantly and made it really hard for us to get into the game at all,” the England captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt, told Sky Sports
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