Save our chalk streams

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill returned to the Commons for MPs to consider the Lords amendments, including the chalk stream protection amendment.

Thank you to all of you who urged your MP to support the amendment! Your efforts resulted in contributions from MPs about chalk streams dominating the debate with countless calls for their protection, 130 MPs voting in favour of the amendment, and new commitments from Government for chalk streams!

Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook said, “The Government acknowledge the case for giving explicit recognition to chalk streams in national planning policy, […] we will lay out and consult on proposals to include that explicit recognition and in so doing make clear, unambiguously, our expectations for how plan makers and decision makers should treat chalk streams.”

However, as for the amendment itself, the Government whipped* its supporters to reject it, so the result of the vote was to disagree to (reject) including chalk stream protections in the bill (amendment 38). You can see a full breakdown of the vote, including if and how your MP voted, here: Planning and Infrastructure Bill (Division 353: held on 13 November 2025).

*What is a whip? In politics, a  ‘whip’ is a written instruction issued by a party to their MPs detailing how they are expected to vote.

Thank you to the MPs who spoke up for chalk streams in the debate! As for our local MPs across our 3 counties - thank you to Greg Smith MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, Jack Rankin MP for Windsor, Clive Jones MP for Wokingham, Charlie Maynard MP for Witney, and Calum Miller MP for Bicester and Woodstock for voting.

Last chance for the amendment - On 24 November, the Lords had the opportunity to insist on the chalk stream amendment, which would have sent it back to the Commons again for MPs to reconsider. The Lord Bishop of Norwich (who originally tabled the amendment) again pushed for a vote.

The Minister reiterated the commitment to recognise chalk streams in a new national policy for decision-making, as well as making further commitments:

• “The Government will embed actions to improve chalk streams into the water White Paper, which will be published before the end of the year.”
• “In responding to this amendment in the other place, the Government committed to amend statutory guidance to encourage chalk streams to be featured prominently in local nature recovery strategies going forward.”

Unfortunately, after hearing these concessions, Peers voted against the chalk stream amendment. Thank you again to the Lord Bishop of Norwich, we’re grateful for all his efforts.

There is still hope for chalk streams yet! We welcome the Government’s recognition of the need for chalk stream protections and the commitments made BUT these protections must be robust and effective. The Save Our Chalk Streams campaign is not over. As ever, we will continue to call for proper protections for our chalk streams, lobby decision makers and hold Government to these new commitments as we learn more about what they involve. 

The fight to secure protections for chalk streams in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill continued!

Despite clear cross-party consensus from the committee that chalk streams are truly special, important, globally unique, and that we should be doing more to protect them, the amendment was rejected.

More MPs gave passionate and strong arguments for chalk streams at the report stage, but unfortunately and once again, the amendment was rejected.

Thank you to all the MPs who spoke up, but thanks especially to chalk stream champion, Chris Hinchliff MP.

BBOWT and many other chalk stream supporters disagreed with the Government’s arguments that their current systems and future Water Bill would be enough to protect chalk streams and thankfully so did The Lord Bishop of Norwich. As the Bill moved to the Lords, the amendment was tabled at the Lords committee stage, but the amendment was not moved.

However, the Lord Bishop, still unsatisfied with the government’s arguments and weak proposals and promises, re-tabled the amendment at the Lord’s report stage and pushed for a vote. Before voting, peers heard many great supportive contributions to the debate, including the Lord Bishop’s own strong and thoughtful speech. He ended by saying, “We cannot wait for a water reform Bill and have these arguments again at that stage. Amendment 94 seeks to protect chalk streams, this precious habitat which we are the custodians of. It aims to restore biodiversity and create a planning system that works with nature, not against it. At present, I am afraid, the Bill before us fails to do this for chalk streams.”

And it seemed the House of Lords agreed with him as they voted FOR the amendment to be included in the Bill. The result was 196 for and 137 against (nearly all of which were Labour peers).

Thank you to all the peers who voted for and spoke in support of the amendment, and a BIG thank you to the Lord Bishop of Norwich. 

We went to Westminster!

Alongside our friends from fellow Wildlife Trusts, The Rivers Trust, the Angling Trust, ARK and many more, BBOWT went to parliament to raise awareness among MPs about the importance of chalk streams and the threats they face. We discussed how we can work together to protect and restore chalk streams, both in our local patch and nationally.

A big thank you to Olivia Bailey MP for Reading West and Mid Berkshire for hosting all of us and championing chalk streams.

We also asked MPs to support amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that would give chalk streams better protections. Sadly, these amendments were ultimately rejected despite strong cross-party support.

However, we’re not giving up the fight for chalk streams, and neither are many supportive MPs. The Wildlife Trusts, who are members of the Save Our Chalk Streams campaign, met with 10 MPs who stood, cross-party, side by side outside Parliament to back our call to have proper protections for England’s globally rare chalk streams.

We asked our MPs to attend the second reading of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill on 24th March to raise the importance of chalk streams and the need for protections for them in the planning system. During the reading, chalk streams were mentioned 15 times!

Chris Hinchliff MP tabled the chalk stream protection amendment. We are asking all our MPs to add their name and show their support.

The Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook, responded to our joint open letter.

Read the response

We signed an open letter to Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, The Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP.

Read the letter

Find out more: Nature charities urge UK Government to protect rare chalk streams

We asked our MPs to attend the ‘Chalk Streams: Sewage Discharge’ debate. Local chalk streams, including the Pang and the Loddon, were discussed as well as the need for recognised special status and designation for chalk streams, buffer zones and nature-based solutions. Click below to read the full debate.

Chalk Streams - Sewage Discharge

We asked our supporters to complete our e-action to respond to the Government’s planning reforms in the National Planning Policy Framework consultation. The e-action allowed you to personalise your response with why you think chalk streams are so special into a template with our policy asks. Hundreds of supports took this action so thank you!

The Wildlife Trusts put on a parliamentary roundtable hosted by Maria Miller MP to bring attention to the crisis, and several other MPs advocated for more ambitious measures to safeguard chalk streams in the Government’s plans.

We asked supporters to email their MP to help chalk streams today – not in 2063.

Find out more

BBOWT join forces with other local Wildlife Trusts to launch the Save Our Chalk Streams campaign.

News article

• Callum Anderson (Buckingham and Bletchley)
• Olivia Bailey (Reading West and Mid Berkshire)
• Chris Curtis (Milton Keynes North)
• Emily Darlington (Milton Keynes Central)
• Tan Dhesi (Slough)
• Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury)
• Emma Reynolds (Wycombe)
• Matt Rodda (Reading Central)
• Peter Swallow (Bracknell)
• Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley)
• Sean Woodcock (Banbury)

• Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) Conservative
• Jack Rankin (Windsor) Conservative
• Clive Jones (Wokingham) Liberal Democrat
• Charlie Maynard (Witney) Liberal Democrat
• Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) Liberal Democrat

• Anneliese Dodds (Oxford East) Labour
• Joy Morrisey (Beaconsfield) Conservative
• Lee Dillon (Newbury) Liberal Democrat
• Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) Liberal Democrat
• Layla Moran (Oxford West and Abingdon) Liberal Democrat
• Joshua Reynolds (Maidenhead) Liberal Democrat
• Freddie Van Mierlo (Henley and Thame) Liberal Democrat
• Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) Liberal Democrat

With only around 220 existing worldwide, these cool, fresh, oxygen-rich waters provide the perfect habitat for rare British species like water vole, southern chalk stream Atlantic salmon, brown trout, southern damselfly, water crowfoot, and white-clawed crayfish.

Over 85% of the 220 chalk streams in the world are found in the South of England, truly one of the rarest habitats on the planet. They are also incredibly rich in life; home to more species of plants than any other English river and include species found nowhere else. They are England's equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef or the Amazon Rainforest: a truly special natural heritage and our responsibility.

England's rarest habitat and richest chalk streams should be clear, and sparkling with vitality. Instead they are becoming clogged and choked by toxic chemicals, fertilisers and sewage. Drought and over consumption are draining the life out of rivers, with devastating consequences for the wildlife and people that rely on them.

Healthy rivers are vital for our water supply, our food security and our ability to withstand a changing climate. We can't allow the abuse of these vital life support systems to continue.

Currently, only 11 out of the 220 British chalk streams have any legal protections as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). These are Berkshire and Wiltshire’s Kennet, Hampshire’s Test, Somerset’s Frome, Dorset’s Bere Stream, Norfolk’s Nar, Yorkshire’s Hull headwaters and Greater London’s Crane.

Only 4 are protected as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), a higher level of protection: Berkshire’s Lambourn, Hampshire and Wiltshire‘s Avon, Hampshire’s Itchen and Norfolk’s Wensum. But while these protections are helping to keep these rivers in a better state than chalk streams that are not protected, we need stronger regulations specifically designed for our chalk streams. 

Currently, only 16% of waters in England are in good ecological health and none meet chemical standards. Staggeringly, this means not one of England's chalk streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries or seas are in an overall healthy condition. Even the 16% that are in good ecological health are not in good health overall because of the chemicals they contain.

Previous targets required by the Government to get our rivers in to good overall health by 2015 and 2021 have been missed.

The Government's 'river basin management plans' that launched in 2022 stated that the Government predicts that all of our rivers and streams won't be in good overall health until 2063. That's four decades away!