'Licence to trash nature'

[cronus]

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 19217.html

'Licence to trash nature'

The Government has been accused of trying to introduce a policy feared by some to be a back-door "licence to trash nature" for housing developers.

According to campaign groups, a controversial programme known as "biodiversity offsetting" could result in natural habitats for many species – including chalk meadows, marshes and ancient forests – being developed for housing without adequate replacement. Under the proposals, developers are supposed to contribute funding towards offsetting damage done to wildlife, then used to re-create a similar habitat elsewhere.

But groups including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Friends of the Earth have warned the scheme could backfire. The charity Friends of the Lake District even suggests it could create a "perverse incentive" to develop biodiverse areas because the combined cost of the land and offsetting could be cheaper than prime farmland elsewhere.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is holding a public consultation exercise about introducing a national system, with responses due in by Thursday. However, in August, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) quietly published draft planning guidance that invited developers and councils to consider biodiversity offsetting, while noting Defra was still "looking closely at the costs and benefits".

But 17 conservation groups, including the RSPB, WWF and Campaign to Protect Rural England, have said in a joint statement that they are "concerned that a poorly implemented offsets system could have a negative effect on biodiversity", adding that similar schemes abroad had resulted in "net biodiversity loss". Among the areas that could be developed are sites of special scientific interest (SSSI) – those that house Britain's "very best" wildlife.

(continued)

[pErvinalia]

No surprises there.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

...Tom Tew, chief executive of the Environment Bank, a private company set up to broker offsetting deals, admitted if it was "done very badly, in a completely unregulated way, there is a potential for it to go wrong". He said: "What we don't want is a sort of unregulated Wild West where a bunch of cowboys ride into town and say 'we can do it quicker and cheaper'. We understand people's concerns and we welcome oversight and regulation."

Mr Tew said the Environment Bank would monitor its own schemes, but expected the Government to set up a regulatory framework. He said offsetting was a "fantastic opportunity to get large sums of money put into habitat creation exercises", potentially as much as £500m a year nationwide.

"I'm an environmentalist," he said....

No you're not. Dickhead.

...A DCLG spokesman stressed development on SSSIs was allowed only in "exceptional circumstances"...

Just precisely what fucking "circumstances" could they possibly be imagining here? How can the need for some new housing estate ever be considered that "exceptional"?

[mistermack]

Predictably, I'm blaming the net immigration that they've allowed to happen over my lifetime.
The pressure is on housing land anyway, what with the increase in divorce, in people living longer, and in people not wanting to live with their parents.
To add to that, by allowing millions of extra people to settle here, was just ludicrous. And now, there isn't the land for the housing that we need.

I would bring in a windfall tax on the change of use of land, and relax the planning restrictions in the most expensive areas of the country. With a speeding up of the appeal procedure against planning permission.

The country could get some tax revenue, and an increase in the housing stocks.

But they have to reduce illegal migration to zero. The place is over-full.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

...Tom Tew, chief executive of the Environment Bank, a private company set up to broker offsetting deals, admitted if it was "done very badly, in a completely unregulated way, there is a potential for it to go wrong". He said: "What we don't want is a sort of unregulated Wild West where a bunch of cowboys ride into town and say 'we can do it quicker and cheaper'. We understand people's concerns and we welcome oversight and regulation."

Mr Tew said the Environment Bank would monitor its own schemes, but expected the Government to set up a regulatory framework. He said offsetting was a "fantastic opportunity to get large sums of money put into habitat creation exercises", potentially as much as £500m a year nationwide.

"I'm an environmentalist," he said....

No you're not. Dickhead.

...A DCLG spokesman stressed development on SSSIs was allowed only in "exceptional circumstances"...

Just precisely what fucking "circumstances" could they possibly be imagining here? How can the need for some new housing estate ever be considered that "exceptional"?

If there is an exceptional amount of cash to be made, obviously!