PLANS to change the planning system as part of the government's growth agenda is a "horror story for nature and democracy", according to one Essex campaigner.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill aims to introduce significant measures to speed up planning decisions, boost housebuilding, and remove unnecessary blockages for 'vital' infrastructure such as new roads, railway lines, and wind farms, in part through reducing the control local councils will have on new developments.

Local councillors will be excluded from the decision-making process on developments of under 100 houses.

The government says this will boost economic growth, connectivity and energy security whilst also delivering for the environment.

This includes creating a nature restoration fund, which the government says will ensure environmental obligations are met faster and more effectively by pooling contributions.

However, Essex-based campaigner and co-founder of the Community Planning Alliance, Rosie Pearson, said the new rules will allow developers to go ahead without checking for endangered species.

She added her concern about the proposed approach of creating a nature recovery fund to create new areas for nature, which she said could often be nowhere near the devastated habitats.

Among key changes proposed by the government is the introduction of a national delegation scheme that will set out which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to the planning committee.

There will also be controls over the size of planning committees to encourage good debate, with large and unwieldy committees banned and mandatory training for planning committee members.

Mrs Pearson added that this will reduce scrutiny of developer proposals on nature.

She said: "In this combined horror story for nature and democracy, the government is placing Britain's precious and beleaguered wildlife and countryside at enormous risk. It is abundantly clear that you cannot annihilate a colony of bats or pillage the unique habitat of reptiles and invertebrates and expect their species to flourish just because islands of habitat are provided somewhere completely different."

She added: "The British public wants the government to do more for nature, not less. Using the growth mantra as an excuse to bulldoze green spaces is a false economy. We cannot keep destroying the environment and must instead use what we have far better.

"That includes using brownfield sites, empty homes and commercial properties for housing and solar, upgrading the existing transmission grid before building new infrastructure and planning for cycling, walking and public transport instead of building new roads."

The plans also include reform of compulsory purchase reform and the strengthening of development corporations to help deliver large-scale development – like the government's new towns.

The bill will also introduce a system of 'strategic planning' across England known as spatial development strategies, which it says will help to boost growth by looking across multiple local planning authorities for the most sustainable areas to build.

These plans will be produced by mayors or by local authorities in some cases and will ensure the level of building across the country meets the country's needs.

Under these plans, people living within 500m of new pylons will get money off their electricity bills up to £2,500 over 10 years.

In response to the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill, Roger Mortlock, chief executive of CPRE, the Countryside Charity, said the bill needs to incentivise the delivery of affordable homes.

He said: "Without it we will see yet more unaffordable, car-dependent developments built across our countryside.

"Big housebuilders have a stranglehold on UK housing supply, delivering poor-quality, identikit housing painfully slowly, while the tired 'builders and blockers' rhetoric falsely pitches communities against economic growth.

"The government should take this opportunity to create a new generation of sustainable homes, starting with the 1 million homes that have planning permission but have not been built and then by building on the shovel-ready sites that could deliver 1.2 million more.

"The brownfield passports introduced in this bill will help development on previously used land. Though without meaningful targets for delivery, many of these potential new homes will remain unbuilt."

Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing Angela Rayner said: "We're creating the biggest building boom in a generation – as a major step forward in getting Britain building again and unleashing economic growth in every corner of the country by lifting the bureaucratic burden which has been holding back developments for too long.

"The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will unleash seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker to build more homes and the vital infrastructure we need to improve transport links and make Britain a clean energy superpower to protect billpayers.

"It will help us to deliver the 1.5 million homes we have committed to so we can tackle the housing crisis we have inherited head-on – not only for people desperate to buy a home, but for the families and young children stuck in temporary accommodation and in need of a safe, secure roof over their heads.

"These reforms are at the heart of our Plan for Change, ensuring we are backing the builders, taking on the blockers, and delivering the homes and infrastructure this country so badly needs."