American Billionaires Behind Efforts to Strip Nature Protections
Who really funds influential think tank Britain Remade? Britain Remade are run by PR/lobbying firm Stonehaven. EDF and Sizewell C are clients of Stonehaven. Stonehaven donated £7,200 to the Scottish Labour Party. Danica Priest explores the dark money networks behind the lobbyists for new nuclear power.
Read our previous investigation here: Who are Britain Remade? – Bella Caledonia
Read The Ferret investigation here: This pro-nuclear group claims to be ‘grassroots’. So why are its directors industry lobbyists?
For the past month I’ve been doing intensive research on the think tanks pushing harmful environmental deregulation especially ‘growth group’ Britain Remade. This was intended to be part of a larger story taken on by established journalists and national media. However, after seeing the great work The Ferret have done in exposing Britain Remade’s links to EDF, I decided to publish some of my findings. I also made a visual web showing all of the connections between these think tanks, large corporations and politicians. I hope this will help push larger publications to cover this incredibly important story.
Britain Remade claim to be a grassroots campaign promoting ‘growth’ and have been influential in shaping government policy to remove nature protections. In reality, they are a campaign vehicle of an international PR and lobbying firm and have received millions in funding from some of the wealthiest people in the world.
They are notorious for never disclosing the essential details of their funding but I’ve discovered the truth and it’s extremely revealing…
Who Funds Britain Remade?
Grants:
- $67,000 in June 2025 for ‘nuclear cost reduction project’ from American billionaire funded organisation Coefficient Giving
- Coefficient Giving also fund many deregulation ‘Yimby’ groups in the US and worldwide
- Coefficient Giving is funded by 5 American billionaires, including Bill Gates.
- £11 million from Quadrature Climate Foundation in 2022 which is the year Britain Remade were established
- Quadrature behind the controversial £4 million donation to the Labour Party
Key Facts:
- Britain Remade are run by PR/lobbying firm Stonehaven.
- EDF and Sizewell C Nuclear Plant are clients of Stonehaven.
- EDF is the developer of nuclear power station Hickley C which is the case study used to justify weakening habitats regulations due to the infamous ‘Fish Disco’.
- Stonehaven donated £7,200 to the Scottish Labour Party.
- Britain Remade are currently lobbying heavily to remove the Nuclear Ban in Scotland.
As far as I’m aware these grant figures have never been reported before despite being public information
Why this matters:
Britain Remade want to remove our wildlife protections
Britain Remade and other dark money think tanks have been pushing to remove environmental protections and have been successful in influencing the government. They are currently pushing Labour to accept a nuclear regulations review that recommends weakening the Habitats Regulations. Weakening the legal protections for our most important wildlife sites sets a precedent that will be applied to all infrastructure, including new roads, housing and factory farms.
They have clear access and influence over politicians
Labour ministers have not been shy in their support of Britain Remade. Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero Ed Miliband spoke at their policy playbook launch and backed their deregulation proposals calling it a ‘manifesto of hope’. The government used their endorsement of Labour’s planning reforms in an official press release which you can still find on the government website. They were even invited to 10 Downing Street to discuss the planning and infrastructure bill before it was published.
It’s deceptive to claim grassroots support while funded by vested interests
On their website, Britain Remade describes themselves as a grassroots organisation, they refer to themselves as activists and even scolded the Wildlife Trusts for calling them ‘corporate lobbyists’. A grassroots campaign is a self-funded, community-founded, people-led movement that challenges the elite. Britain Remade don’t accept individual donations, are ‘brand owned’ by a corporate lobbying firm and have funding from US tech billionaires. This is the very definition of an Astroturf movement.
The problem with this is their funding comes from people and companies who benefit financially from the policies they lobby for but this isn’t being disclosed. For example, they advocate for nuclear deregulation without disclosing that Stonehaven clients include EDF and Sizewell C, or that they have American funding specifically for nuclear cost reduction.
The media regularly positions Britain Remade as an objective spokesperson for growth. Their press releases are often published as news articles without critical scrutiny. By not disclosing who funds them and why, they are misleading the public.
To show a real world example, does this Britain Remade quote from an article in The Guardian read different now that you know the financial connection to EDF?
“At a time when Britain’s electricity bills are among the world’s highest, our regulatory system forced EDF to spend nearly £280,000 per fish protected. This is indefensible. These types of modifications have added years in construction and billions in costs; costs that ultimately get passed on to consumers in higher bills.”
Stonehaven Global Holdings
Stonehaven is a corporate consultancy and PR firm with high profile clients and offices in London, Singapore, Dubai and Washington D.C. They often run campaigns that look ‘grassroots’ but are professionally managed with massive budgets. Their pitch is: ‘Stonehaven built its reputation on a simple insight: if you want government approval for major projects, show that real constituents are on board.’
Britain Remade have never disclosed their relationship to Stonehaven but it’s well documented and undeniable:
- Stonehaven has been listed as the ‘brand owner’ of Britain Remade
- Clients have referred to the director of Stonehaven as the Project Director for Britain Remade.
- As a member of PRCA Stonehaven’s client and staff list are publicly available and Britain Remade are listed alongside EDF
- At least two of Stonehaven’s listed directors are also listed directors of Britain Remade (BRM Futures Limited) on Companies House.
- The address Britain Remade is registered under is the same address as Stonehaven at the time.
Coefficient Giving
Coefficient Giving is the American organisation that gave a $67,000 grant to Britain Remade for a ‘nuclear cost reduction project’ in 2025.
These are the organization’s founders and donors:
1. Dustin Moskovitz- Co‑founder of Facebook and Asana, tech billionaire worth $17.4 billion
2. Cari Tuna- wife of Dustin, former Wall Street Journal reporter.
3. Patrick Collison- co‑founder of Stripe, tech billionaire worth $10 billion
4. Lucy Southworth- wife of Google co‑founder Larry Page worth $44 billion
5. Bill Gates- Co‑founder of Microsoft and recently in the Epstein files. Currently 5th richest person in the world worth $168 billion
Why would American tech billionaires want to fund nuclear deregulation in the UK?
While we can’t say for sure Britain Remade often mention nuclear is needed to power our future AI data centers and they heavily encourage US investment in the UK.
Coefficient Giving also fund most of the prominent American Yimby groups. These are free-market loyalist Astroturf groups lobbying for planning deregulation. For example one Yimby campaign has introduced a bill in Maryland to remove the two staircase safety requirement in apartments.
Quadrature
The same year Britain Remade was formed, Quadrature Climate Foundation gave them an $11 million grant. The charity commission register shows Britain Remade received around £2 million a year from them. The foundation is the ‘charitable’ arm of hedge fund Quadrature who have shares in Palantir and Blackrock.
Quadrature is currently in the news for its controversial record-breaking £4 million donation to the Labour Party.
Did Britain Remade influence the Fingleton Review?
In September 2025 Britain Remade published their nuclear policy reform playbook. The Fingleton review was published two months later. Most of Britain Remade’s recommendations were included in the report.
Fingleton has never publicly said he was influenced by any think tanks but there are many similarities between the Fingleton Review and Britain Remade’s nuclear policy playbook for example:
Britain Remain:
“Britain is the most expensive place in the world to build new nuclear power stations… Hinkley Point C… will be the most expensive nuclear power station ever built… British‑built plants cost far more per kW than peers.”
Fingleton:
“Today, it has become the most expensive place in the world to build nuclear projects… The increasing complexity and risk aversion of our regulatory system has contributed to a weakening of the UK’s leadership and competitiveness.”
Stonehaven hosted a roundtable meeting on July 16th, 2025 called ‘the Future of Economic Regulation’ where a Fingleton representative was in attendance along with Britain Remade and ‘a representative of a major energy retailer’ who was unnamed.
While John Fingleton was leading an independent government review of nuclear regulations his staff were simultaneously having discussions with deregulation lobbyists Stonehaven and Britain Remade. Fingleton however did not meet with any leading body of ecologists or environmental experts and has not taken The Wildlife Trusts up on their offer to discuss concerns.
I’ve submitted an FOI to obtain more information around the procurement process for Fingleton and the nuclear task force but I’m still awaiting results.
Source of the spider and snail scapegoat stories works for Stonehaven
Michael Dnes is the Head of Transport Policy at Stonehaven, but like Britain Remade, he doesn’t disclose that in his influential posts about development blocking invertebrates.
Spiders and Starmer
On February 1st, 2025 Dnes claimed to break a story about ‘jumping spiders and the town that disappeared’ with AI artwork called The Spiders that ate Ebbsfleet. His post was shared widely across platforms by developer-funded thinktanks, GB news presenters and professional yimbys.
Starmer repeated this story in a statement a month later, claiming spiders blocked 15,000 homes and used this to justify slashing environmental ‘red tape’ to solve the housing crisis. He was rightly fact checked for spreading misinformation by NGOs since over 14,000 homes on that development are currently being built.
Snails and Reeves
On July 19th Dnes published another story titled ‘Death and Snails’ where he exploited six tragic road deaths without permission from their families.
He fully admits he wrote this in response to the nature-friendly planning bill amendments:
‘On Thursday night, we heard that government was making big concessions on its planning bill, putting lots more controls on its nature recovery plans. I find this disappointing. And to explain why, I have to tell a story I’ve been holding off from sharing.’
The post argues that environmental protections for endangered species are directly responsible for the deaths of six people and implies environmental campaigners that helped get the planning bill amendments passed have blood on our hands. I wish I was exaggerating but he really is that dramatic and manipulative.
On July 22nd, just 3 days later, Chancellor Reeves mentions snails pejoratively during the House of Lords economic affairs committee saying she cares ‘more about getting a young family on the housing ladder than I do about protecting some snails’. No Labour minister ever referred to snails as an obstacle (or at all) before this instance.
Bowman and the American Billionaires
The web of dark money, free-market think tank employees is thick, but one mutual connection is worth noting. Sam Bowman worked for Fingleton as an adviser from Jan 2018- Dec 2021. He is thanked as a contributor on Britain Remade’s nuclear policy playbook.
Sam currently works for Stripe who’s CEO funded the American foundation that gave Britain Remade $67,000 to push nuclear cost reduction. He is also a founding editor of the Stripe acquired magazine Works in Progress. Britain Remade directors have written for Works in Progress many times including this one piece about streamlining environmental and safety regulations where EDF is constantly mentioned.
Britain Remade head of policy and main substack writer, Sam Dumitriu, was head of projects at the Adam Smith Institute the same time Sam Bowman was executive director of the Tufton Street think tank. Sam Dumitriu then went on to work for the think tank Sam Bowman co-founded, The Entrepreneurs Network, before moving to Britain Remade when it was established.
Sam Bowman also has links to the infamous American right-wing billionaires, the Koch Brothers, since he is on the board of directors of their Mercatus Center. The Koch Brothers have sponsored many US Yimby groups and events over the years mostly through the Mercatus Center.
The Fingleton Review: Britain Remade vs The Wildlife Trusts full backstory:
- The Wildlife Trusts published a report exposing the errors and flawed logic in the Fingleton Review.
- Britain Remade wrote a blog post accusing the Wildlife Trusts of being inaccurate, misleading, sloppy and irrelevant.
- I fact checked Britain Remade’s response.
- The Wildlife Trust responded to Britain Remade’s claims.
- And also called out EDF for releasing misinformation.
- Britain Remade tried yet again to discredit the Wildlife Trusts in response to their article.
- The Nuclear Industry Association also published an article claiming to set the facts straight.
- I wrote a rebuttal that disproved these claims.
- The Wildlife Trust responded to the government’s Fingleton Review proposals.
Letters
- Labour MP Chris Hinchliffe along with around 70 other MPs, Peers and NGOs signed a letter asking the government to save the habitats regulations.
- Britain Remade sent their own letter mostly comprised of think tank heads.
Evidence and Further Reading:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/labour-lobbyists-work-for-party-undeclared-election-campaign/
https://www.alisonshumanmedia.com/britain_remade
https://www.britainremade.co.uk/labour_s_planning_reform_success
https://www.stonehavenglobal.com/making_britain_build_again
BRM FUTURES LIMITED people – Find and update company information – GOV.UK
How Stonehaven drives UK infrastructure campaigns with NationBuilder – NationBuilder
The future of economic regulation – Stonehaven
https://www.qc.foundation/our-grants/our-partner-database/
https://www.britainremade.co.uk/cheapernuclear
https://www.britainremade.co.uk/can_i_contribute_to_the_campaign
https://coefficientgiving.org/funds/abundance-and-growth/
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/planning-reforms-to-slash-a-year-off-infrastructure-delivery
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25854271.us-tech-giants-lobbying-blitz-scottish-parliament/
Follow Danica Priest here: https://substack.com/@danicapriest
It’s not spiders and snails who should be endangered.
#biocracynow