Letter to Danny Chambers MP on Planning & Infrastructure Bill

In October 2025, we wrote to Danny Chambers, MP for Winchester, about the damaging effect of provisions in the Government's proposed Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

This controversial Bill, part of the Government's drive to build new housing on a large scale, removes some existing protections for chalk streams.  Specifically, it would allow developers to pay into a central fund as mitigation for harm done to the natural world during building.  This is different to current approaches, where the mitigation has to be linked to a site close to where the harm was done.

Like other campaigners, we are concerned that for rare and local habitats such as chalk rivers, damage caused by development in these locations cannot be undone or mitigated elsewhere.  The Bill does not explicitly include safeguards for irreplaceable habitats, to exempt them from this new approach, leaving them vulnerable to irreparable harm from developments. 

The House of Lords has voted for an Amendment introduced by the Bishop of Norwich to provide greater protection for chalk streams.

We have written to Danny Chambers MP, as the River Itchen flows through his Winchester constituency, asking for his support for the Amendment when the Bill returns to the Commons for consideration.

We are calling on the Government to adopt strong measures to make sure our globally important chalk streams are properly protected as the Government pushes forward with delivers its growth agenda, including house building and major new infrastructure works.