New reforms to environmental regulation have been unveiled by the government, aimed at streamlining processes, driving economic growth and safeguarding nature.
The reforms, which are the result of a government-commissioned review, include nine measures identified as having the potential greatest impact being fast-tracked:
- Lead regulator: Major infrastructure projects will have a single, lead regulator that deal with developers, intended to speed up approvals and save businesses time and money.
- Revamping environmental guidance: A review will take place of existing compliance guidance to remove duplication, ambiguity, or inconsistency.
- Streamlined permits and guidance: Updates to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 will allow regulators to make more risk-based decisions on which activities should be exempt from environmental permits, in some cases removing them altogether for low-risk and temporary projects.
- Planning permit portal: Defra will convene the environmental regulators to set out the work required to upgrade their digital systems for planning advice, including a single planning portal for all agencies.
- New Defra Infrastructure Board: This will accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects by facilitating greater collaboration and stronger oversight within Defra and its various bodies - unblocking barriers to development at an early stage.
- More autonomy: “Trusted” nature groups will be given more freedom to carry out conservation and restoration work without needing to apply for multiple permissions at every step of a project.
- Green finance boost: A new industry-funded Nature Market Accelerator will help to bring coherence to nature markets, boosting investment into natural habitats and driving growth to help give businesses confidence to invest.
- Strategic policy statements for regulators: Clearer guidance and measurable objectives will be provided for all Defra’s regulators, starting with Natural England and the Environment Agency, to drive performance improvements and focus delivery on government priorities. Progress will also be closely monitored and reported on publicly.
- Rolling regulatory reform: A continuous programme of reform will be established to pinpoint rapid actions, quick wins, and longer-term areas for improvements to regulation.
Harvey Davies, Environmental Consultant in the Thrings Planning and Environment team, said: “The system of environmental regulations has, for some time, been convoluted with the patchwork of regulations overlapping and sometimes conflicting so to see the government actively seeking reforms that could simplify this and help make development and nature recovery more straightforward.
“As with all changes, the devil will be in the detail and so it will remain to be seen how impactful these changes will be, but on the face of it, many of the problem areas within the system are in the crosshairs. It would be wise for landowners and rural businesses to ensure they are taking legal advice on how they can adapt and take full advantage of these reforms.”
Thrings’ Planning and Environment lawyers have extensive experience in navigating complex local and national planning policy legislation and has successfully supported commercial and residential clients to optimise the use of their land to generate innovative new long-term revenue streams through the creation of natural capital projects and other diversification initiatives To find out more and for advice on your development proposals, please get in touch.
