UK government putting pressure on nature groups to drop opposition to planning bill

The planning bill is central to the government’s promise to build 1.5m homes and 150 major infrastructure projects in this parliament. Photograph: Mark Waugh/Alamy

The government is putting pressure on wildlife organisations to drop their opposition to its planning bill, the Guardian has learned.

Some of Britain’s biggest nature charities including the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust say the legislation risks widespread destruction of nature. The charities want a key section of the legislation, part 3, scrapped entirely because they say it is a “licence to kill nature”.