Developers met ministers dozens of times over planning bill while ecologists were shut out | Labour

The extent of lobbying by developers to ministers over Labour’s landmark planning changes aimed at ripping up environmental rules to boost growth may be revealed as campaigners make last-ditch attempts to secure nature protections.

The government published its planning and infrastructure bill in March. Before and after the bill was published, chancellor Rachel Reeves and housing minister Matthew Pennycook met with dozens of developers in numerous meetings. Meanwhile, the board representing professional ecologists did not meet even a single minister despite requests.

Government planning bill will reach its final stages before receiving royal assent in the coming days after months of wrangling between ministers, nature groups and ecologists.

The government has promised to repeal rules allowing 1.5 million homes to be built by the end of this parliament as part of its growth drive.

While last-minute wrangling over reforms continues, peers have secured a significant change that will ensure species such as dormouse, chickadee and hedgehog, and rare habitats such as wetlands and ancient woodlands continue to be protected from damage caused by development.

Katherine Willis, the member of the House of Lords who put forward the successful amendment on behalf of nature organizations and ecologists, said the changes would reduce the bill’s risk to the natural world while also helping developers. He called on MPs to vote on the amended bill next week.

“This provides a pragmatic way out of what the real things are that are holding back development and is a win-win change as it will help developers build homes but it also means the vast majority of nature that the public really cares about will be protected,” he said.

But the government has shown little sign of wanting to compromise. He has previously lashed out at MPs over a series of amendments and sacked a Labor MP for speaking out on behalf of nature.

The Guardian can reveal the extent of lobbying by developers at face-to-face meetings with the chancellor and other ministers that have been going on for months, while professional ecologists are struggling to gain an audience.

“Access to ministers has been difficult,” said Sally Hayns, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. “We asked for a meeting early and were rejected at first. We asked again in July and finally had a meeting with civil servants in the autumn. We did not have a face-to-face meeting with any minister.”

By contrast, just a week after the end of his term, Reeves hosted high-level meetings with housebuilders Berkeley, Barratt and Taylor Wimpey and went on to hold a series of meetings with house developers, according to Treasury records of ministerial meetings.

Reeves repeatedly extolled the virtues of breaking the rules of nature to make building homes easier, and decried the bats, salamanders, and spiders that might get in the builders’ way.

He recently boasted at a tech conference hosted by US bank JP Morgan that he had unblocked 20,000 homes that had been blocked by a rare snail after a developer approached him. These houses were initially closed by Natural England because there was a risk of water depletion in the Sussex area.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has also recorded several meetings with developers including Vistry, Berkeley, Barratt and Taylor Wimpey. By May this year it had recorded 16 meetings with property developers on housing supply and planning reform.

In contrast, its relationship with wildlife and nature groups is less intense. Pennycook recorded four meetings with nature groups last year; three with Wildlife and Countryside Link, and another with various groups, including the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). Ministers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have held roundtables with environmental NGOs, but oversight of the bill is being carried out by Pennycook’s department.

Vistry, which is building 1,200 homes outside Newton Abbot in Devon, last month sent bulldozers within meters of the 2,000-year-old protected ancient wetland. They want planning conditions protecting the site to be removed and have said they have been in contact with Labor housing ministers, asking for help to resolve “existing bottlenecks” and speed up the project.

Hayns said ecologists in his group worked closely with developers and made important contributions that helped move projects forward, but they were not properly consulted. “There is a very low level of ecological literacy displayed by ministers,” he said.

“Nothing I have seen or heard reassures me that Rachel Reeves understands the importance of nature to economic and social well-being, nothing.”

Nature is treated as expendable, Hayns said. “I believe this will bite them in the local elections,” he said. “Nature and protecting it is an issue that people care about.”

Joan Edwards, director of policy and public affairs at the Wildlife Trusts, said it was vital that the amendment, which would remove the most damaging aspects of the planning bill, was supported by MPs in the House of Commons next week.

“The evidence is conclusive and the consensus is growing: nature is not a barrier to development and the government must stop pretending otherwise… this is MPs’ last chance hall to ensure the planning and infrastructure bill delivers development and growth that will bring real benefits to people and wildlife.”

A Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “We completely deny these allegations. Minister Pennycook has attended two meetings with environmental groups about the planning and infrastructure bill in recent months, while the secretary of state has also held a number of meetings with environmental NGOs during his time at Defra.

“This involvement helped shape the development and passage of the planning and infrastructure bill, which will remove barriers to building vital new homes and infrastructure, delivering a win-win for the economy and nature. We will consider our next steps when the bill returns to the House of Commons and will leave no stone unturned to get Britain building faster.”