Of 22 sites being held on a waiting list, before designation, 14 were at risk from development. That's 64% of potential SSSI's, and the wildlife living within them, at risk of being lost. Read the full report on our blog: wildjustice.org.uk/unprotected-...

NEW REPORT: Today we publish Unprotected Nature, a report revealing Natural England's failure to designate any new protected sites. Read about it in the Guardian here: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

England wildlife watchdog ‘has stopped designating special sites for protection’

Exclusive: Report finds Natural England has created no new SSSIs, which protect areas from development, since 2023

theguardian.com

Natural England failing to protect valuable sites. Our report for @wildjustice.bsky.social shows that nearly 2/3 of sites waiting to be designated as SSSIs were under threat from development. One site in Thurrock will be directly destroyed. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

England wildlife watchdog ‘has stopped designating special sites for protection’

Exclusive: Report finds Natural England has created no new SSSIs, which protect areas from development, since 2023

theguardian.com

Thank you to everyone at the @thetcpa.bsky.social who helped with this event, especially Hugh Ellis and Jeanette Aves. We had a packed room, eager to talk about renewing the purpose for planning. We're looking forward to taking the purpose we created out to the wider world!

Town and Country Planning Association@thetcpa.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The TCPA has partnered with The University of Sheffield to bring together practitioners, researchers & students to ask the question: What is the purpose of planning? Later today, we'll launch a new ethical code for planners, that has been co-curated with The University of Sheffield students.

🥾 Just shy of 200 people joined us up at Moscar Moor today to mark the start of the shooting season and united around our call for this huge grouse shooting estate in the Peak District to be taken into community ownership.

And lovely to see the data and code available under a CC0 licence too! doi.org/10.5061/drya...

Malcolm Tait@malcolmtait.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Fascinating research from colleagues at @sheffielduni.bsky.social on impact of urbanization on moth and hoverfly populations www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Fascinating research from colleagues at @sheffielduni.bsky.social on impact of urbanization on moth and hoverfly populations www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Gardeners urged to collaborate to help moths and hover flies thrive in cities

Researchers found moths and hover flies are more negatively affected by urbanisation than bees

theguardian.com

For thousands of years, we have been parasitised, exploited and destroyed by elites. Our survival depends on overthrowing them. Fascinating article by @dpcarrington.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse

An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

theguardian.com

And another example from the French Alps where the marmots gamble, but where there aren't meadows full of Monarch butterflies!

Chapman, K. & Tait, M., (2025) “Commodification, labor, abstraction: Three key concepts to understand the many-headed hydra of biodiversity offsetting”, Journal of Political Ecology 32(1): 6186. doi: doi.org/10.2458/jpe.... @pollenetwork.bsky.social

I am looking forward to discussing why the UK is so crap at looking after #biodiversity at the Byline Festival with Alexa Culver, @kitstoner.bsky.social, @malcolmtait.bsky.social and @carexnigra.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social Visit the website to find out more: lnkd.in/eXfAnf3k

Read our response to Defra's consultation on improving the implementation of #Biodiversity Net Gain for minor, medium and Brownfield development.

Our response to Defra’s consultation on improving the implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain for minor, medium and brownfield development

Read our response to the consultation here

naturerecovery.ox.ac.uk

@skomerisland.bsky.social just put a BRILLIANT gay birds post up on Facebook, in celebration of Pride. And they are copping hate for it in the comments. So please lets show them some love on here by dropping them a follow and a supportive tweet!

"the struggle between local residents and festivalgoers deserves less scrutiny than the tensions between austerity, profit and urban public space." @michaelchessum.bsky.social on Brockwell Park and YIMBYism Uggly Fences www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ju...

Michael Chessum | Uggly Fences

‘Can’t you ping elsewhere?’ The question, daubed on the twelve-foot green fences encircling much of Brockwell Park...

lrb.co.uk

Battleship grey of the battleship of a moth - the Poplar Hawk-moth

I thought at the time of the Spring Statement that the OBR estimates on housebuilding were extremely optimistic... www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Report casts doubt on Labour’s ability to hit affordable housing target

Exclusive: Chancellor urged to increase funding as study suggests government has overestimated its housebuilding figures for England

theguardian.com

Malcolm Tait@malcolmtait.bsky.social · last yr.

Couple of thoughts on the OBR #SpringStatement report: 1. Planning reform does a lot of heavy lifting to generate economic growth 2. Projected housing growth of 1.3m homes by 2029 projected to take off in the last 2 years. No thought of absorption rates? This all seems highly unrealistic obr.uk

A nice couple of moths yesterday: Lime Hawkmoth and Elephant Hawkmoth. Both relatively common, but nonetheless very beautiful

It was great to speak on this great podcast. Excellent hosting from @itsbethperry.bsky.social and @goodfellowtom.bsky.social - we covered a lot in a short time, including the problematic way that the government is talking about newts and bats blocking development!

Sheffield Urbanism @sheffieldurbanism.bsky.social · last yr.

Episode 4 of Urban Radar, in conversation with @malcolmtait.bsky.social on recent #planning reforms, raising a crucial question: Are these planning reforms guiding us in the right direction? Tune in here lnkd.in/enVHKU6g For any feedback write to is at : urbanradar-group@sheffield.ac.uk

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A new kind of gentrification is spreading through London – and emptying out schools | Anna Minton

Thanks to ‘placemaking’, thriving communities are hollowing out, to be replaced by luxury apartments and expensive restaurants, says author Anna Minton

theguardian.com

At Urban Radar @malcolmtait.bsky.social & @kierachapman.bsky.social in conversation with Tom Goodfellow and Beth Perry talk about their recent report on biodiversity and planning, and why it's so important to rethink our planning approaches if we want to turn things around. lnkd.in/enVHKU6g

A rather belated admission from Government that housebuilders benefit from building slowly. Reheating quite a few existing ideas, and a lot rests on councils and housebuilders agreeing build out rates. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Developers face fines as Rayner steps up plans to speed up UK housebuilding

Councils will get powers to impose ‘delayed home penalty’ under latest government proposals

theguardian.com

Very frustrating news! Despite our research showing that 75% of bird boxes were not installed, despite being required in planning consents, apparently this isn't enough to move towards mandatory provision of swift bricks

Kiera Chapman@kierachapman.bsky.social · last yr.

So Labour say they won't install swift bricks because they are moving away from specific species mitigations to landscape level ones. But swifts nest IN BUILDINGS. So how is landscape-level compensation supposed to help? Just ecologically illiterate nonsense 🤦‍♀️ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social goes ballistic on Labour's planning reforms, and quite rightly so. They give licence to trash nature, diminish democratic rights in planning decisions, and also won't work in building the 1.8m homes the government wants. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Labour has denounced me as ‘deeply misleading’ on its planning reform. I wish that were true | George Monbiot

Even it now admits that brick by brick, these proposals will wreck habitats. This could be Starmer’s most damaging mistake yet, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

theguardian.com

Our Lost Nature report for the @rtpiplanners.bsky.social is now written up in the @newscientist.com! A really good article and insightful comments from Natalie Duffus and Tom Oliver. www.newscientist.com/article/2480...

I managed a jaunt to Lindrick Common this morning to check on the Rare Spring Sedge. This SSSI golf course is fairly sympathetically managed for it's interesting plants. The last record for this site was 2008, so good to refind it. A fellow @sorbynathissoc.bsky.social found another patch last month

So Angela Rayner just issued a judgement based on the new Planning Policy Guidance about the greenbelt - and it's a sign of seismic change to come in the countryside. So there used to be 5 purposes to the greenbelt. But these were recently been reduced by Labour to three. 1/?

Govt is portraying the new #PlanningBill as 'win-win' for nature & people. This is false. Sec of State needs to amend this statement so as not to mislead MPs' votes. We will apply for judicial review if correction not forthcoming ⚖️ wildjustice.org.uk/general/wild...

Wild Justice starts legal proceedings against Government’s controversial Planning and Infrastructure Bill - Wild Justice

Conservation campaign group Wild Justice has written to the government calling on it to correct a statement made in Parliament […]

wildjustice.org.uk

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Midsummer butterflies spotted early in Britain after sunny spring

Scientists fear early emerging insects may fall out of sync with pathogens, predators or availability of food

theguardian.com

👀

Dr Andrew Boswell #CarbonReckoning@drandrewboswell.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨BREAKING🚨 📢 So .. are Starmer, Reeves & Rayner headed for big shock in their quest to weaken UK climate and nature laws? ✅ Politico report that Johnson's Brexit trade deal might put an end to these very nasty parts of their Planning and Infrastructure bill 👉 www.politico.eu/article/newt...

Impact assessment of the Nature Recovery Fund is now out (link in article below). It essentially says that it will save housebuilders approx. £0.5bn (largely in capital costs) and will be beneficial to nature. However, it's based on very thin analysis. A 🧵 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

UK government admits almost no evidence nature protections block development

Whitehall analysis provides no data or research to support the government argument that environmental legislation holds up building

theguardian.com