Building Homes. Burying Badgers
- Badger Trust Staff Team
- Apr 23
- 3 min read
Badger Trust slams Planning Bill changes that put England’s badgers in the crosshairs
As the Planning and Infrastructure Bill progresses through Parliament, Badger Trust warns that the government's proposals mark a devastating betrayal of England’s wildlife—particularly one of its most iconic and persecuted animals: the badger.
Despite government assurances, the Bill paves the way for homes to be built upon the bodies of our wildlife. This is not progress—it is nature stripped for profit. It is development underpinned by destruction.
The bill’s key changes include controversial amendments to the Protection of Badgers Act (1992), now permitting the killing, taking, or disturbing of badgers under the guise of ‘development’, ‘public health’, or ‘overriding public interest’. These changes not only dismantle hard-won legal protections but risk normalising lethal control in routine planning and infrastructure.
“This is a bill that trades England’s biodiversity for bulldozers. It offers nothing but a fast-track to extinction for badgers already decimated by years of culling,” said Nigel Palmer, Chief Executive of Badger Trust.
Not the problem—but always the scapegoat
Government rhetoric continues to frame badgers and other protected species as obstacles to development. This narrative is not only false—it is dangerously misleading. England’s housing crisis is not caused by badgers, bats, or newts. It is the result of poor planning, market speculation, and a failure to deliver affordable homes, not wildlife protections.
“Let’s be clear—badgers aren’t blocking homes. They’re being used as a scapegoat for a failing planning system that consistently chooses profit over people and nature,” Palmer added.
The Bill introduces Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) and a Nature Restoration Levy, enabling developers to bypass licensing requirements by simply paying into a fund. This “pay-to-destroy” model is deeply flawed: it offers no immediate protection to badgers who will be displaced—or killed—during construction. Nature does not work on bureaucratic timelines.
Habitat restoration is not a substitute for habitat protection. Once ancient foraging routes and sett networks are torn up, they are lost. Replacing them with a sapling or a fund doesn’t bring life back. It brings paperwork.
Undermining decades of conservation
Badgers are already under siege. Half the population has been culled in England since the government's controversial bovine TB policy began. This Bill throws fuel on that fire, further weakening enforcement, accountability, and protections under the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife.
The proposed amendments risk triggering local extinctions, particularly across Southern England, where populations are already in sharp decline.
A better way forward
Badger Trust is calling on Parliament to rethink this reckless legislation. Effective planning does not require the destruction of nature. Development can—and must—coexist with biodiversity.
We call for:
Removal of all clauses that permit the killing of badgers for development purposes
Mandatory badger surveys by trained ecologists prior to planning approvals
Enforcement of the mitigation hierarchy: avoid, minimise, compensate
Long-term protections for relocated setts and habitats
Post-development monitoring to ensure badger populations persist
“There is a better way. But it requires integrity, evidence, and respect for our natural world—not the illusion of progress built on death and destruction,” said Palmer.
As the Bill moves through committee stage, Badger Trust is submitting evidence to demand better. We urge the public to contact their MPs, speak out, and stand up for wildlife before it’s too late.
Because these homes, if built on the backs of badgers, will be homes built on extinction.
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