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Environmental - News

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The problem with Biodiversity Net Gain

One year on from new legislation making biodiversity net gain (BNG) a legal requirement for developers, research shows it has delivered less than half the habitat expected. David Richardson looks at what’s holding BNG back. Read more

  NEWS

Apr 10, 2025

Council agrees to quash permission for quarry project: report

Charity the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) has said that a pre-action protocol letter to Northumberland County Council has led the authority to admit to a legal error and agree to enter into a consent order to quash its decision to permit a quarry project.
Apr 08, 2025

Proposed environmental regulation reforms to give regulators more control over permits

The UK and Welsh Governments have unveiled proposals to amend environmental permitting regulations in a bid to simplify and speed up the process for lead regulators the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales "to create, amend and remove types of exempt facilities and activities which are not required to hold an environmental permit".

  FEATURES AND ANALYSIS

March 13, 2025

Recent appeals give colour to Grey Belt development uncertainty

Recent changes to the policy on Green Belt development in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) have led to a string of decisions relating to schemes on grey belt land. Hermione Kemp and Matthew Tucker explore what the changes mean in practice and the implications of the decisions below.
January 31, 2025

Planning reform: development and nature recovery

Stephen Tromans KC and Ned Helme consider the “Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery” and how the Government’s aims of drastically increasing the rate of housebuilding and infrastructure development can proceed whilst also achieving the equally challenging commitments on net zero and ambitions for nature recovery.

  MORE NEWS

Feb 10, 2025

Supreme Court to hear key case next week on ‘appropriate assessment’ and subsequent approvals

The Supreme Court will next week consider whether Regulation 63 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (“the Habitats Regulations”) require an ‘appropriate assessment’ to be undertaken for subsequent approvals after the grant of outline planning permission at a further consent stage, i.e. at the approval of reserved matters and discharge of conditions stages.
Jan 15, 2025

Government to appeal river pollution ruling

Environment Secretary Steve Reed has appealed against a judicial review decision reached last year when Pickering Fishery Association successfully argued that the Environment Agency had failed in its legal duties to protect a former trout stream damaged by sewage pollution and runoff from fish farms.
Dec 16, 2024

National park authorities to be given general power of competence

National park authorities are to be handed a general power of competence, “which will clarify their legal framework, removing restrictions which prevent an entrepreneurial approach, and cut through bureaucracy to remove barriers to achieving more for people and nature”, the Government has announced.
Nov 07, 2024

Supreme Court agrees to hear test case on appropriate assessment against backdrop of nutrient neutrality issues

The Supreme Court has granted permission to appeal over whether the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 ("the Habitats Regulations"), properly interpreted, required an "appropriate assessment" before a local planning authority decided whether to discharge conditions on the approval of reserved matters, having previously granted outline planning permission, without such an…

  MORE FEATURES

June 25, 2024

Fossil fuel projects and planning permission

In a ground-breaking decision handed down last week, the Supreme Court has ruled that the grant of planning permission for oil production in Surrey was unlawful for failing to assess the ‘downstream’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that will inevitably arise from the combustion of the fuel, following refinement of the crude oil. Barristers at Cornerstone Barristers analyse the ruling.
June 12, 2024

Local nature recovery strategies

How can local nature recovery strategies contribute to nature recovery and what are local authorities required to do? Helen Gill explains.
May 30, 2024

Sharpe Pritchard shines bright with launch of solar podcast

One of the UK’s leading infrastructure and renewable energy law firms Sharpe Pritchard has launched a new monthly Podcast, ‘Making Solar Simpler’ to help with the implementation of solar technology throughout the UK.
May 29, 2024

Heat networks consumer protection consultation

The landscape of heat network operations in the UK is set to undergo significant changes. On 30th April 2024 the Government published its response with Ofgem on consumer protection requirements for heat networks. Steve Gummer and Kamran Zaheer review the changes.