23 Feb 2023

New housing, commercial and infrastructure developments are set to be “nature positive” from November onwards, the government announced, with the plans backed by £16 million of funding for Local Planning Authorities and guidance to support the new approach. Developers in England will be required to deliver 10% “Biodiversity Net Gain” when building new housing, industrial or commercial […]

08 Feb 2023

Major water projects could be fast tracked through planning under Government plans to reform the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime. On 25th January, Michael Gove, secretary of state for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, told Parliament that his department is working with Defra, BEIS, Treasury and the Department for Transport on modernising the approach […]

17 Aug 2022

Last week the French Parliament approved a law requiring all new buildings in commercial zones to be partially covered in plants or solar panels. In a bid to make France more eco-friendly, all new buildings in commercial zones across the country must comply with new environmental legislation. The law will sanction business to either partially […]

16 Jun 2022

The Local Government Association (LGA) has conducted research entitled ‘Nutrient and water neutrality: The impact of environmental protections on housing supply’. The LGA commissioned Residential Analysts and Canal Street Research to investigate the potential impact of environmental protections on new housing delivery. A news report in inews said that ‘sewage-polluted rivers blocking construction of thousands […]

01 Jun 2022

The TCPA and the Environment Agency have launched a resource on addressing flood risk through the planning system. The video explains how and why planning must consider flood risk and explores different options and opportunities. There are also links to a range of related resources, including Environment Agency strategy and related resources Site-specific flood risk […]

05 May 2022

Media stories: A legal requirement that new houses do not pollute nearby wetlands, rivers and nature reserves has halted development across a swath of England, the Guardian has reported. The news piece stated that ‘forty-two local authorities in England were last month told they must ensure that new homes are “nutrient neutral” and do not add damaging nitrates […]

25 Jan 2022

From Defra The Water Services Division at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has published a research report which concludes that the overall picture generated by the research is that it is “both rare and challenging” to achieve a strategic approach to surface water management through the planning system. Introducing the research report, DEFRA said […]

19 Jan 2022

From waterbriefing Five regional water resource groups have published their Emerging Regional Water Resource Plans, setting out how they propose to address a predicted water deficit for England of 3,435 million litres per day (Ml/d) megalitres by 2050. The estimate is set out in the national framework for water resources paper Understanding England’s future water needs […]