RSPB Campaign - Step up and save your landscapes

Step up and save your landscapes!
Dear supporter
As you may have seen in the last few weeks, the UK Government launched the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – the next step in the biggest overhaul of the planning system in more than 60 years. It aims to streamline and speed up the planning system by condensing more than a thousand pages of national planning guidance into just 50, and clarify what the focus of planning in England should be.
While the prospect of more open and user-friendly planning could be a good thing, the NPPF in its current form presents a huge threat to the natural environment.
Most worrying is the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’. Whilst it may sound positive, as currently worded it would make it extremely difficult for a local authority to reject planning applications, even where these would damage important wildlife sites. When combined with the fact that the NPPF as currently drafted emphasises economic considerations above all else, this poses a potentially huge threat to the environment and local communities that the planning system has, until now, been there to protect.
But, it doesn’t have to be this way. The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is currently holding a consultation on the NPPF and we need your help to show that the public want a planning system that has truly sustainable development at its heart.
Please step up for nature and call on the UK Government to put sustainability back at the heart of planning!
Take part in our quick and easy online action to send the consultation team an e-mail.
Thank you very much for your support.
Yours sincerely
Steven Roddy
Parliamentary Campaigns Manager