RSK Biocensus hosts the First Thursday Club, a scientific, specialist-led webinar on the first Thursday of each month, covering a wide range of current environmental and ecological issues. In this session, RSK Wilding’s legal, ecological, and planning expert breaks down the implications of the legislation and explores what it means for development, planning and nature.
While intended to streamline planning, Part III of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduces the idea of developers paying into a centrally managed Nature Restoration Fund to address the notional impacts of development via a system of delivery plans and levies. These changes weaken established environmental protections, allowing developers to compensate for ecological harm through a complex community infrastructure levy (CIL)-style process rather than through direct mitigation.
The bill nullifies key environmental laws, reducing accountability and limiting legal challenges. In addition, the test used to justify environmental delivery plans lacks measurable criteria. This unpredictable, levy-based system that clashes with local and national planning policies is likely to accelerate the decline of our natural environment while adding costs and delays to the developer experience.
See the recording here https://youtu.be/p-Ww6Jk8tMI?si=Gx5PzTrTUpzVAqnS
Alexa Culver is RSK Wilding’s General Counsel and joined the team in January 2025, having previously been general counsel at natural capital specialists Environment Bank. She is a member of the College of Experts at the Office for Environmental Protection and was recognised in the ENDS Report Power List as one of the most impactful environmental lawyers of 2023.