The National Federation of Builders have released a statement in support of the Government’s decision to not pursue the bill
The Climate and Nature Bill was headed off on Friday 24 January, by 120 votes to seven in favour of ending the debate of the bill.
The bill would have set new legally binding climate and nature targets for the UK, with the secretary of state having the responsibility to hit said targets.
The NFB say the Climate and Nature Bill would have a negative impact
Roz Savage, an MP for the Liberal Democrats, originally brought forward the Climate and Nature Bill, titled the Climate and Nature Private Members’ Bill.
However, the vast majority of MPs were against the bill, arguing that making the targets a legal obligation would risk higher bills, taxes, loss of jobs, and higher imports of fuels, as key reasons that the bill would not have the desired effect.
Solutions may be within SMEs
The National Federation of Builders agrees with this sentiment, with a statement referencing their history of working with the government on their environmental and climate policies.
The NFB further say that solutions that would be effective are often offered by SME businesses, including renewable energy solutions in buildings and working with communities on nature conservation projects.
Business insolvencies
However, as part of a trend, it is often these businesses that suffer and often go insolvent due to the issues laid out above. In October 2024 alone, 319 construction businesses fell into insolvencies, for example, with 4,208 total insolvencies in that year to October.
The NFB, therefore, say that, despite the noble cause, the Climate and Nature Bill is far too likely to have negative, unintended consequences that may cause more harm than they solve.
Impact on the construction industry
The NFB’s statement says that many of the past government’s decisions “Have resulted in increased taxation, lower growth, and have achieved little or nothing for the climate and environment. The Labour Government is therefore correct to take stock and ensure the direction of travel delivers for nature, business, and society.
“The following outlines a few examples of where industry warnings were ignored by the Government.
“The Treasury’s decision to remove the construction industry’s access to red diesel increased project costs and fuel theft, while also creating new maintenance expenses for the plant hire sector. Three years on, most machinery remains diesel fuelled, with the limited availability of electric plant machinery still to be charged by diesel generators.
“DEFRA’s Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) approach, which is championed as an ‘onsite first policy’ but for most developments cannot be delivered onsite, is creating offsite habitats miles from original development sites. Their strategy also neglects local biodiversity and, if projects can afford the sky-high mitigation costs, means new developments do not build in biodiversity but instead, can create physical barriers within a wildlife corridor. Due to being a statutory requirement, BNG is also reducing levels of affordable housing.
“Sticking with DEFRA, Nutrient Neutrality schemes attempt to reduce the pollution entering our waterways, not by targeting the polluters but the new build sector, which in some areas accounts for less than 1% of total pollution. Like BNG, Nutrient Neutrality leads to farming land being taken out of use to provide mitigation credits via habitat creation and in the process reducing the UK’s food security.
“In the MHCLG, vital grid investment, such as pylons and substations, continue to be stopped by NIMBY sentiments, while the Government obsesses over the energy efficiency of new homes, despite these new homes accounting for only 1% of stock and already being 65% more efficient than old homes.
“These outcomes exist because somebody tried to use policy levers to do the right thing but, in the process, ignores the broader impacts. This consequently damages sustainable environmental and climate improvement, stifles maintainable change, and embeds zero sum outcomes.”
The post Climate and Nature Bill rightly shot down, say NFB appeared first on Planning, Building & Construction Today.