More than 7.4 million people in England live in areas completely devoid of immediate biodiversity, including 1.4 million children under 15, according to a report published Thursday by a coalition of wildlife and environmental NGOs. The report links the findings to proposed changes in planning law that exempt small sites under 0.2 hectares from mandatory biodiversity net gain rules and place a further exemption, now under consultation, on brownfield sites up to 2.5 hectares. In the most deprived areas, 82% of planning applications are for sites under the 0.2-hectare threshold and four times as many potential brownfield homes are concentrated in the poorest fifth of the population as in the richest fifth; the report estimates the small-site exemption alone could mean the annual loss of biodiversity equivalent to nearly 11,000 mature trees or 400 football pitches of wildflower meadow. The charities are calling for the brownfield site exemption to be scrapped and for a legally binding five-year policy lock-in.