CIEEM: What UK planning reforms mean for environmental monitoring

How will the Labour government’s reforms to planning permissions impact the environmental management industry?   

By Jed Thomas  

The UK Labour government’s proposed planning reforms are set to transform the landscape of environmental management.

Central to these changes is a shift in regulatory logic—from preventing environmental harm to mitigating it after the fact.   

One of the most controversial elements is the proposed nature restoration levy, which allows developers to pay into a central fund rather than directly addressing the environmental impact of their projects on-site.  

This change effectively transfers responsibility for monitoring and mitigation from developers to Natural England, the public body responsible for conserving England's ecology. 

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Instead of requiring developers to meet clear environmental standards upfront, Natural England will be tasked with protecting certain designated ‘features’ of a given area subject to development.  

It will be their responsibility to estimate the damage that is likely to be done and to establish a plan to mitigate that damage – although there appears to be no mandatory timeframe for this response, which raises concerns about delayed mitigation.  

The issue, of course, is that preventing pollution - especially of stubborn substances like PFAS or heavy metals - is far easier than mitigating it.  

The new model raises fundamental questions about the future of environmental governance. Can conservation at one site truly offset degradation at another? And does this shift represent innovative flexibility or a dangerous weakening of oversight?  

As the reforms move forward, those working in environmental monitoring and protection will need to adapt to a system where, in certain areas where EDPs are established, detection and remediation for particular ecological features may take precedence over prevention—and where financial contributions may be seen as a substitute for environmental responsibility. 

To dive deeper into these reforms and get a sense of how environmental management is going to change in the near future, EnvirotechOnline spoke to Jason Reeves, Head of Policy at the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, which is the leading professional membership body representing ecologists and environmental managers in the UK, Ireland and abroad.  

To read the full interview, click here.

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