The government is looking to reform environmental regulations in a bid to speed up planning applications for major infrastructure and businesses, in recommendations made in the newly published Corry Review.
The £100 million “bat tunnel” that was developed to protect 300 bats over a one-kilometre length of track as part of the HS2 rail project has been cited as an extreme example where ‘green tape’ got out of hand.
The review, commissioned by environment secretary Steve Reed, found there were more than 3,000 pieces of “green tape”, with developers having to seek permissions from multiple regulators before knowing how to proceed.
Reed said: “Nature and the economy have both been in decline for too long. That changes today.
“As part of the Plan for Change, I am rewiring Defra and its arms-length bodies to boost economic growth and unleash an era of building while also supporting nature to recover.
“Dan Corry’s essential report gives us a strong set of common-sense recommendations for better regulation that will get Britain building.”
The review called for the creation of a single, lead regulator for major infrastructure projects to speed up processes.
Meanwhile Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 should be updated to enable regulators to make “sensible, risk-based decisions” on which what should be exempt from environmental permits.
On issues like illegal dumping and waste sites, the review recommended that regulators like the Environment Agency be able to avoid the court system in order to issue fines for minor offences.
Meanwhile “trusted nature groups” should be given the ability to carry out conservation and restoration work without applying for permissions; a proposal that will be tested by Natural England and the National Trust.
There were 29 recommendations in all.
Penny Simpson, environmental law partner at leading law firm Freeths, said: “The Corry Review is just the latest in a long list of attempts at implementing “smarter” and “leaner” regulatory frameworks.
“A key issue will be whether this report recognises the importance of a high integrity and appropriately governed private nature market which can successfully attract investment and thereby grow.
“The government’s document published… precedes the Cory Review and suggests that the Government will be exploring ‘launching a Nature Market Accelerator to bring much needed coherence to nature markets and accelerate investment’.
“It’s not clear what this means but it sounds encouraging. This is because when it comes to environmental regulation, it is tempting, but fundamentally wrong headed, to adopt an “either/or” approach between growth or the environment.”
Simpson added: “Rather, if the government wants a sustainable and flourishing economy and society it is essential that it adopts a ‘both/and’ approach, whereby we energetically and wholeheartedly invest in both the best developments our country badly needs as well as in the ecosystems and healthy environment critical to ensuring our society is sustainable.
“One of the best ways of achieving this is for government to help create high-integrity, well-functioning nature markets. Doing this will ensure that as we invest in new development we are also investing in the ecosystems and natural capital assets necessary to ensure that those developments are sustainable.
“We do however need a clear strategy for nature markets from the government and we are not getting that from the Planning and Infrastructure Bill’s Part 3 on Nature Recovery, where the role of private nature markets is left distinctly unclear. We need amendments to the Bill which bring the two strategies together more coherently into a joined-up approach.”