England’s planning bill has many naysayers. I'm not one of them | Nick WIlliams

The legislation is a product of joined-up environmental thinking - aiming to create housing while preventing nature loss

• Nick Williams was an economic policy adviser to Keir Starmer between 2023 and 2025, having previously worked in HM Treasury

In recent weeks, various nature groups and newspaper columnists have promoted claims that the government's flagship planning and infrastructure bill is a nature sellout". The argument goes that the government is conspiring with malign developers to destroy irreplaceable habitats as a first resort. This sounds alarming, if only it were true.

The truth is that our current framework for protecting habitats has been in place for decades but has failed to prevent nature loss. This is because we approach conservation in the least effective way possible, with tens of thousands of individual site-by-site protections. Ecological science is clear that this is outdated. Modern conservation strategies recognise the necessity of interconnectivity and scale for supporting complex ecosystems.

Nick Williams was an economic policy adviser to Keir Starmer between 2023 and 2025, having previously worked in HM Treasury