RSPB and other nature charities raise alarm over UK government plans

The person is Michael Le Page.

As part of the new UK Conservative government's emergency budget, the chancellor announced plans to set up low tax investment zones with relaxed planning restrictions in parts of England. The government may abandon plans to pay farmers and land owners in England to help preserve and enhance areas for wildlife.

This has caused an uproar from environmentalists across the political spectrum, with opponents saying it would be a disaster for wildlife.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds stated that the government had launched an attack on nature. Nobody will be safe if they carry out their plan.

Hilary McGrady is the head of the National Trust, a charity that manages large areas of land in the UK. The investment zones are for nature and heritage.

Conservative member for parliament Ben Goldsmith said that everything we do depends on the health of the nature. Britain is a nature-depleted country.

Plans for the investment zones are vague at the moment. There will be a liberalised planning offer for Investment Zones in the future.

In England, the government is in talks with 38 local authorities. The areas that will become investment zones are up for negotiation. The government wants to extend the scheme to Scotland.

Similar schemes have existed in the UK before. Different regulations would apply to the plans for "Freeports". There are already 48 enterprise zones in England that benefit from tax and planning concessions, but have generated far fewer jobs than expected.

Sources within the government have told The Observer that the Environmental Land Management Scheme will be scrapped before it even comes into effect. The idea was to pay farmers and land owners to manage their land in a way that will benefit the environment.

According to the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, the UK was supposed to be moving away from farmland after it left the EU. The Common Agricultural Policy subsidises intensive agriculture and pays farmers to keep land clear even if it isn't used to grow crops, according to wildlife advocates.

Craig Bennett of The Wildlife Trust said that it was the "utter madness of this". One of the few environmental benefits of leaving the EU will have been wasted if we reverted to an agricultural system where people are given money based on the amount of land they own. It won't be fair and unsustainable.

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