Conservationists and opponents of the Government's planning reforms responded to the Autumn Statement with fury.
The announcement that the birds and habitats directives are to be reviewed to prevent them delaying or frustrating development has brought nature conservation organisations firmly into the anti-Government camp.
And the National Infrastructure Plan 2011 has been roundly condemned for concentrating on inter-urban roads.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England called the Statement a road plan for disaster. Senior transport campaigner Ralph Smyth said road plans had simply been picked off a dusty shelf without thought.
"Laying new tarmac to allow the building of new out of town housing and superstores is not a plan for economic success but a road to disaster," he said.
"It will weaken already struggling high streets and permanently disfigure our countryside."
The National Trust said the statement had cast a cloud over the environment.
It noted there was no real rhetoric over his renewed attack on planning but warned there is devil in the detail and attacked the review of birds and habitats directives.
"On balance, the Government can hardly claim this as a ‘green' statement," it said.
"There is a glaring need for a new way of thinking that puts environmental and social concerns into the mainstream of economic policy."
Nature conservation organisations were less restrained. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said the habitats directive had required developers, planners and conservationists to work together for 17 years to find creative solutions.
It said the review threatens the protection of wildlife crown jewels.
The Wildlife Trusts said they were exasperated by the statement.
The planning review had already failed to recognise local wildlife sites and now sites and species of European importance also face an uncertain future.
WWF-UK said it was dismayed by the Statement and the directive review would open a can of worms.
It said the Government should invest in the green economy.
Friends of the Earth said the Statement would send a wintery blast through the UK's future economic prospects and said it rewarded polluters.
