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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 16h

Campaign for National Parks @campaign4parks.bsky.social · 20h

It's now clear that the gov't are NOT proposing to repeal the Protected Landscapes duty 🙌

A huge thank you to the more than 200 charities, businesses & organisations who joined us in writing to Keir Starmer 💚

Now to focus on improving our Protected Landscapes...
www.cnp.org.uk/news/plans-t...

Plans to weaken Protected Landscapes Duty quietly dropped

Westminster government published its list of amendments for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and there are no proposals to weaken protections for National Parks.

www.cnp.org.uk

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 16h

Lobbyist-sponsored panels at party conferences have “become the pay-to-play red-light district of British democracy: sponsors literally rent the rooms by the hour”

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 16h

Fringe meeting panels "not intended to be interesting debates, but to push a certain policy perspective to MPs at the conference[s]"
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Academic axed from Labour conference panel for criticising energy policy

Sustainability expert was told panellists discussing North Sea oil and gas were meant to ‘agree entirely’ with each other

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Richard Hebditch

Jaap Burger @jaapburger.eu · 16h

It seems that EU tariffs on Chinese EVs have not changed the value of car imports; rather, they have led to fewer electric cars and more hybrids (a segment in which European car manufacturers were betting on for this decade). Same blow for European car manufacturers, worse air and climate outcome.

Felix Hamer • electricfelix @electricfelix.bsky.social · 17h

rafajbuendia:

"Tariffs Beat Consumer Preferences. Read full analysis at SOAPBOX" substack.com/@soapboxtrad...
(free subscription)

#alwaysbecharging

aka: Thanks for nothing EU_Commission, the kids will be forever grateful!

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 20h

How was the WiFi? Surely that let you down?

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 21h

67 government amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill tabled yesterday - my quick and short summary of what they mean is here: www.linkedin.com/posts/richar...

Government amendments to PIB at Lords report stage | Richard Hebditch

The Government tabled 67 amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill yesterday, just a week before the final stages of the Bill in the Lords. My quick summary of the amendments is below. These...

www.linkedin.com

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

Also looks like the biggest "blocker" tackled by today's amendments is the Ministry of Defence who object to wind farms affecting their ability to detect beeches of nuclear test ban treaty, rather than the planning system itself.

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

More quotes from Steve Reed: "a planning system that says no to everything and yes to nothing” (87% of major planning applications approved in most recent figures)
"We’re taking the fight directly to the blockers"
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Reeves and Reed to ‘bulldoze barriers’ in sweeping planning overhaul

Ministers promise pro-developer reforms to speed up housing, infrastructure and onshore wind projects ahead of next month’s budget

www.thetimes.com

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

More quotes from Steve Reed: "a planning system that says no to everything and yes to nothing” (87% of major planning applications approved in most recent figures)
"We’re taking the fight directly to the blockers"
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Reeves and Reed to ‘bulldoze barriers’ in sweeping planning overhaul

Ministers promise pro-developer reforms to speed up housing, infrastructure and onshore wind projects ahead of next month’s budget

www.thetimes.com

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

Press release here: www.gov.uk/government/n...

Pro-growth package unshackling Britain to get building

Pro-growth changes to the government's landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill to get Britain building faster.

www.gov.uk

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

"We will ‘Build, baby, build’...held to ransom by blockers...backing the builders not the blockers", says the Government's quotes in tonight's press release.
Hyperbole doesn't actually match the detail of last minute amendments nor tackle deal with the bigger problems in the housing market.

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

One week before almost the very last stage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the government are tabling over 60 amendments to their own Bill (this is after all the scrutiny from Commons and Lords committee stages).
bills.parliament.uk/publications...

bills.parliament.uk

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

But others do not reflect any of the public debate on the Bill, with significant changes coming very late in the day and presumably just from private discussions with a favoured few.

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

To be fair, some smallish changes result in many individual amendments. And some amendments do respond to the scrutiny from peers and MPs.

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

One week before almost the very last stage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the government are tabling over 60 amendments to their own Bill (this is after all the scrutiny from Commons and Lords committee stages).
bills.parliament.uk/publications...

bills.parliament.uk

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

Coming very soon - the future for the old City Hall by Tower Bridge (where conversion has now started) www.gensler.com/projects/110...

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

"Replacing the current hotchpotch of emissions-related taxes with a single, uniformly applied carbon tax would be a far better approach." Discuss.
(especially as IFS also then accept you'd need a hotchpotch of spending to compensate for the regressive nature of the tax)
ifs.org.uk/publications...

Options for tax increases | Institute for Fiscal Studies

If the Chancellor hopes to raise large sums from tax increases at the Budget, she should consider reforms that would make any increases less damaging.

ifs.org.uk

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

Also calling for new approach to prioritising investment, not just based on the number of homes/businesses affected

As the Government prepares to implement the new investment framework
from April 2026, it must prioritise funding for communities most at risk
from flooding. A simpler system must also be a fairer one, capable of
supporting those facing the greatest hardships and repeated flood events.
The framework should be designed to deliver fairer and more inclusive
outcomes, by:
• Incorporating social vulnerability factors such as deprivation, health
inequalities, insurance exclusion, and rural isolation, particularly
where flooding cuts off entire communities, in decision making,
• Improving access to funding for small-scale, rural, and community-led
schemes,
• Recognising the long-term and repeated impacts of flooding on
people, places, and livelihoods,
• Valuing the co-benefits of adaptation, including biodiversity, mental
health, and economic stability, and
• Moving beyond rigid cost-benefit rules to ensure resilience is built
where it is most urgently needed. (Recommendation, Paragraph 78)

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 1d

EAC recommending mandate catchment scale planning and delivery ("despite years of policy support, it remains inconsistently applied, poorly coordinated, and underpowered by short term, discretionary funding") and mandating nature based solutions (see recommendations below)

The Government should embed nature-based solutions as a core component
of national flood and coastal erosion risk management by 2027. Defra,
working with the Environment Agency, HM Treasury, and other key partners,
should:
• Reform flood funding appraisal and partnership funding rules,
following the Government’s current consultation on reforming the
approach to floods funding, to better reflect the multi-benefit value of
nature-based solutions.
• Set national targets for the uptake of nature-based approaches in
flood risk management by 2026.
• Fully integrate nature-based solutions into flood, planning,
and infrastructure policy by 2027, including economic support
for landowners to incorporate flood resilience measures.
(Recommendation, Paragraph 43)

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 2d

Autumn sunshine in NT's Petts Wood

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 2d

"Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has ordered a last-minute rewrite of the UK government’s flagship planning bill as he attempts to boost growth and patch up the public finances ahead of the November Budget."
www.ft.com/content/8437...

Keir Starmer orders planning bill rewrite in bid to get Budget boost

UK ministers working through weekend to agree amendments meant to speed up big infrastructure projects and housing schemes

www.ft.com

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 4d

The Government has tabled over 180 amendments to their own bill. Suggests might have been better to have a draft bill first with less of a rush?

Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 4d

160 pages of proposed amendments to the English Devolution Bill published today - including climate amendments from @sianberry.bsky.social (see below) & Lib Dems

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 4d

The vision for Great British Railways does seem to be more about stabilisation and efficiencies rather than an improving network. Given the end of franchising, you'd hope that GBR would be able to have a long-term vision for improving stations (or should hand over London ones to TfL...)

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 4d

This weekend will more than half of train operators being state controlled in UK. This post from @murkydepths.bsky.social is worth a read on how state control has not yet impacted on significantly improving stations in my neck of the woods in SE London: www.fromthemurkydepths.co.uk/2025/10/09/l...

Lewisham station to see upgrade and entrance changes for capacity improvement - Murky Depths

Lewisham station upgrade is set to see entrance changes to enhance capacity from next year according to Southeastern

www.fromthemurkydepths.co.uk

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Reposted by Richard Hebditch

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 4d

It's also not "just another" extinction, it's the first from mainland Europe in centuries. CENTURIES.

And there will be others within our lifetime.

That's biodiversity loss.

We'll never hear this sound, ever again xeno-canto.org/398794

XC398794 Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris)

Awful wind noise in the original! See sonogram and notes of the recording circumstances on p12 of Gretton A. (1991) The ecology and conservation of the Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris). ...

xeno-canto.org

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Reposted by Richard Hebditch

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 4d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Richard Hebditch @richard.hebditch.org · 4d

Perran Moon looking to carve out special status for Cornwall (one of a number of similar amendments)