Unprotected nature: is Natural England failing to designate our most special sites for nature?

The ‘Unprotected Nature’ report, published by Wild Justice and written by Dr Kiera Chapman, Professor Malcolm Tait and Dr Rob Davies, reveals how, since the 2024/5 financial year, Natural England has quietly paused its process for designating new SSSIs. This information only came to light because Natural England accidentally shared confidential internal memos with a local campaign group.

Designation matters because SSSI status gives sites special protection within the planning system, meaning that Local Planning Authorities must consider damage to these special places when assessing planning applications or allocating land for development.

The researchers assessed 22 sites awaiting designation in Natural England’s ‘SSSI pipeline’. They used nationally-available data to search for planning applications and decisions and Local Plan land allocations either on the potential SSSI sites themselves, or within a 1 km radius. This is a very conservative estimate of harm, since many types of urban development cause a much wider radius of ecological damage.