Nature isn't the enemy - it's time for The Chancellor to change the record

“Blockers”, “bureaucrats”, “the Green Blob” – we’ve heard it all. Conservationists have been called “the anti-growth coalition” and “the vegetable lobby” who’ve “held the country to ransom”. For some in politics, it seems, conservation serves only one purpose: to get in the way of progress.

And increasingly, those attacks aren’t just coming from the fringes – they’re coming from inside the Chancellor’s red briefcase.

Yet the very things that conservation protects: our coast, countryside, wildlife and heritage, are the same things that appear in every taxpayer-funded tourism campaign, put millions of pounds into the public purse, underpin our food, water and health, and fundamentally make people’s lives better.

So why are some ministers pushing this exhausting anti-nature rhetoric?

If it’s to win votes, this can’t be a smart strategy. The public loves nature. Millions of people spend their weekends at National Trust properties, RSPB reserves, or in National Parks, at the coast, or in their local woods. Blaming bats for the slow rate of housebuilding – despite just 3% of planning appeal decisions last year even mentioning a bat or a newt – might grab headlines, but it won’t stop people wanting Government to look after the places they love and the little nature that’s left.

Like us, the public knows we’re in a housing crisis. And I’m sure most accept that compromises are needed so that everyone can have a safe, decent place to live. But that shouldn’t mean growth at any cost. And it certainly shouldn’t mean new homeowners being forced into urban nature deserts, as studies suggest they are. Everyone needs green space and local amenities near home, regardless of their income or location.

Next week’s Budget provides an opportunity for a gear-change. Rather than denigrating nature, let’s have concerted action to restore it. The Chancellor should announce new public parks where people live and speed up payments for farmers to repair our environment, and underpin the vital business of producing food.

She should double down on the Government’s promising Pride in Place initiative – equipping communities to revitalise high streets and buildings and restore parks – alongside creating national forests. Done right, these schemes will build prosperity in the broadest sense: not simply short-term financial growth, but better health, opportunities and community cohesion.

Crucially, she must not weaken Biodiversity Net Gain, which requires nature to be improved while homes are built, nor undermine the Habitats Regulations, the long-standing laws that protect our already scarce and most precious species.

And please, for the love of bats, let’s have a change in rhetoric. Because language matters. Bashing wildlife and the people who protect it isn’t helping anyone – I’m positive this nature-loving country would agree.