Plan for Change: Don’t blame bats

In Sir Keir Starmer’s Plan for Change Speech given on the 5^th December, the Prime Minister stated that a so-called “£100 million bat tunnel” had held up the country’s single biggest infrastructure project, namely HS2. It is disappointing that the Prime Minister should use this media story to undermine wildlife protection. The story includes several omissions and inaccuracies, as explained in our public statement about the bat tunnel story. We do not know how the decision to build this structure was made – but we do know that blaming bats for spiralling costs and delays of HS2 is inaccurate at best and pandering to populism at worst.

The Prime Minister was wrong to label the regulators as “naysayers” and to undermine the regulations that protect out natural heritage and environment. The Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, recently said, “What we need is a process which says 'protect nature and wildlife, but not at the expense of us building the houses'. We could do both."

Angela Rayner’s views in this statement echoes our own as expressed by BCT’s CEO, Kit Stoner, in her “Nature and business are not at war” blog where she states:

“At the Bat Conservation Trust we have always worked with different industries and sectors to understand what challenges there might be in balancing the needs of people, businesses and nature. Working together to find good practical solutions is the only effective way forward. Our experience is that they are possible, and our industry partners are equally keen to support them.”

We welcomed the joint letter from Angela Rayner and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, in July 2024 saying that: “we are determined to transform the system to ensure a win-win for housebuilding and nature”. More recently, Steve Reed stated the plan to “make this the most nature-positive government this nation has ever had”. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change speech appears to contradict and undermine these commitments.

We agree with the Prime Minister’s statement in his Plan for Change speech that gimmicks are not the way to deal with problems seriously. Leading economist Sir Partha Sarathi Dasgupta states in his review of the economics of biodiversity, “Nature is therefore an asset, just as produced capital (roads, buildings and factories) and human capital (health, knowledge and skills) are assets.” It is only by taking nature conservation seriously that we will be able to benefit from it while also meeting the demand for development.

Previous governments have used similar rhetoric to the Prime Minister and we have called them out for ignoring the evidence that shows that it is not the laws that protect bats and other wildlife that are an issue but how they are implemented.

We recently sent a planning briefing to the Secretaries of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs which outlines ways to reduce planning delays whilst also protecting our natural heritage.

We have also written to the Prime Minister explaining that we want to work with the government to make sure the planning system works for people and business, both of whom benefit from thriving ecosystems.

Further information:

BCT’s HS2 Position Statement
Bat Conservation Manifesto
Mitigation hierarchy - Avoidance, Mitigation & Compensation
Guidance for professionals