Planning bill would allow builders to ‘pay cash to trash’ nature, say UK experts
Leading economists, former government advisers and ecologists are calling for a key section of the government’s planning bill to be changed because it creates a “licence to kill nature”.Sir Partha Dasgupta, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Cambridge, ecology professor Sir John Lawton and Dr Tom Tew, a former chief scientist of Natural England, are among the signatories to a letter to MPs that warns them to ignore government slogans and false rhetoric about nature and wildlife being a block to growth.The letter warns that part three of the planning and infrastructure bill, applying mainly to England and Wales, allows developers to pay “cash to trash” wildlife and the environment.They say it allows companies to sidestep environmental laws affecting their project by instead paying into a national nature levy.“It is a blunt instrument that rewards bad planning and penalises good practice, all the while adding cost and delay to the planning and development process,” the letter said.
In the letter to MPs, who begin hearing evidence on the bill on Thursday, the signatories said: “The nature levy is not a tool for ecological recovery: it is a licence to kill nature, with no evidence to suggest this would in any way help our economy.” They want the section removed and put out to proper consultation and review.They told MPs part three of the bill created a conflict of interest for Natural England, which is supposed to be independent, because the body would be responsible for deciding on conservation plans and assessing their success while being reliant on the new nature levy for its own funding.The bill also created “a dangerous loophole where political convenience can override ecological reality” because Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, would be the final arbiter of whether the nature levy system could be put in place for developers, rather than the environment secretary and an independent body.Dasgupta told the Guardian the nature levy allowed companies to “buy out” of existing nature obligations and effectively removed decades of nature laws.
Far from speeding up the planning process, the nature levy would harm economic growth, he said.“Part three of the bill will cause economic harm by introducing overlapping and clashing nature laws, and slowing development with complex viability-based levy systems that critically undermine the investment case for nature in the UK,” said Dasgupta, the author of a once-in-a-generation review of economic policy commissioned by the Treasury in 2019, which said nature was a crucial asset, and its decline was undermining economies and wellbeing.The signatories said the government’s much-repeated rhetoric that nature and wildlife were blocking development was simply false.“In our collective experience, delays are driven by under-resourced planning authorities, infrastructure bottlenecks, and industry-led viability constraints.Environmental licensing, when done well, is not the problem,” they said.
Another signatory to the letter, Prof David Hill, a former deputy chair of Natural England, said: “I cannot believe we have come to this position,Under the watch of previous governments, the debate had always been around how far we should progress to increase protection and funding for nature and green growth,“Now regressive laws are being quietly accelerated through parliament with no public consultation, impact assessments or pilots,Part three of the bill harms our economy, rather than helps it, and will deliver a profoundly unacceptable blow to our natural environment, which, unlike the economy, may never recover,”
Global study on Covid vaccine safety falls victim to Trump cuts
The largest ever global study into the safety of Covid-19 vaccines has been terminated just 13 months shy of completion, after becoming caught up in the Trump administration’s sweeping funding cuts.The Global Vaccine Data Network, which was established in 2019 by the New Zealand-based vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris and the US-based vaccinologist Steven Black, has already produced some of the world’s most comprehensive studies on vaccine efficacy and safety, based on data from more than 300 million people.The University of Auckland hosts the network, which collaborates with institutions and experts across the globe.The groundbreaking five-year project to evaluate the safety of Covid vaccines across hundreds of millions of people received more than NZ$10m from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2021, but after a recent funding review by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), it can no longer finish the project, Petousis-Harris said.The network looks at data from millions of people to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccines, analyse risk and benefits and respond to issues such as vaccine hesitancy
Daily peanut exposure can desensitise allergic adults, study suggests
Adults with severe peanut allergies can be desensitised by daily exposure, according to the first clinical trial of its kind.After being given steadily increasing doses of peanut flour over a period of months, two-thirds of the trial participants were able to eat the equivalent of five peanuts without reacting.The findings suggest that the window of opportunity for treating allergies could extend into adulthood, raising the prospect of new treatments for those severely affected.“Constant fear of life-threatening reactions place a huge burden on people with peanut allergy,” said Stephen Till, the professor who led the research at King’s College London. “The only way to manage a peanut allergy is strict avoidance and treatment of allergic reactions, including with adrenaline
NHS ‘routinely failing’ deaf patients in England, report finds
Deaf patients face systemic discrimination when it comes to learning about their own health due to NHS failings, with some not understanding that they might have a terminal illness, according to a damning report.The study by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) and SignHealth accuses the NHS of “routinely failing” deaf people.A survey of more than 1,000 people in England who are deaf or have hearing loss found that almost one in 10 had avoided calling an ambulance or attending A&E due to their disability, and a quarter had avoided seeking help for a new health concern.The survey also found that about half of sign language users reported not having understood their diagnosis, or how their treatment worked. NHS staff said a lack of training, time and a poor IT system were major factors in being unable to provide these accessibility requirements for deaf people
NHS staff fatigue poses ‘significant’ threat to patient safety, watchdog warns
NHS staff are so tired they are dying in car crashes and posing a major threat to patients, the service’s safety watchdog will warn on Thursday.Fatigue among frontline personnel causing them to make mistakes is a “significant” risk to patients, according to the Health Services Safety Investigation Body (HSSIB).It “contributes directly and indirectly to patient harm”, yet is not properly appreciated as a risk by the NHS, possibly because of the perceived “heroism” of NHS staff.Exhaustion has led to doctors and nurses harming patients by inserting feeding tubes in the wrong place, leaving swabs inside a woman who had just given birth and mislabelling blood samples.But the NHS safety regulator for England also found that staff who are driving home after finishing a long shift could die in a road accident because they are extremely tired
Childhood toxin exposure ‘may be factor in bowel cancer rise in under-50s’
Childhood exposure to a toxin produced by bacteria in the bowel may be contributing to the rise of colorectal cancer in under-50s around the world, researchers say.Countries, including some in Europe and Oceania, have witnessed an increase in young adults with bowel cancer in recent decades, with some of the steepest increases reported in England, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Chile.Doctors have pointed to soaring rates of obesity, widespread junk food and physical inactivity as potential drivers of the disease, but the new study finds that harmful strains of the common gut microbe E coli may be involved.Prof Ludmil Alexandrov at the University of California, San Diego, said: “We think what we’re seeing is an infection in early life that subsequently increases one’s risk for developing colorectal cancer in the future.”In an effort to understand the trend, an international team led by the University of California, San Diego analysed DNA from 981 colorectal tumours from patients in 11 countries in North America, South America, Asia and Europe
Government pauses plans to ease slot machine rules across Great Britain
Plans to liberalise rules governing high street slot machine shops have been shelved, amid concern about the sector’s treatment of vulnerable customers.Ministers were widely expected to allow adult gaming centres (AGCs), many of which allow customers to play slots 24 hours a day, to install more higher-stakes machines.But, in a rare setback for the fast-growing AGC sector, which declared itself “frustrated” by the decision, relaxation of the rules will not go ahead this year and could be dropped altogether.Under a regulation known as the “80/20 rule”, no more than 20% of the terminals in arcades and bingo premises can be category B3, a class of slot machine that allows stakes of up to £2, promising prizes of up to £500.The remaining 80% must be category C or D, where maximum stakes are £1 and the highest jackpot is £100
UK spending watchdog censures water firms and regulators over sewage failings
UK economy faces growth shock from Trump tariffs, says Bank governor
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Ofcom announces new rules for tech firms to keep children safe online
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