Government pushes reforms of ‘green tape’ in bid to boost growth and nature (Image: Getty)
A single lead regulator for major infrastructure projects will end the “merry-go-round” of developers seeking planning approvals from multiple authorities, the Environment Department has said. It is hoped the reforms will speed up planning applications for businesses and reduce the chances of a repeat of the ￡100 million “bat tunnel” developed to protect 300 bats over a one-kilometre length of track as part of the HS2 rail project.
Ministers have said they will fast-track a number of recommendations in a government-commissioned review, which cautioned against a “bonfire of regulations” but called for reforms to guidance, regulators and the system. The review commissioned by Environment Secretary Steve Reed found there were more than 3,000 pieces of “green tape”, and developers had to seek permissions from multiple regulators, often without speaking to them in advance to understand how the rules would be implemented.
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Announcing the latest reforms, Mr 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.”
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Environment Department (Defra) officials said work had started a rapid review of the regulations, including efforts to bring down 110 pages of bat guidance to just 10 pages.
The chairman of the HS2 rail line Sir John Thompson had said it was spending ￡100m on a shield to protect bats in ancient woodland in Buckinghamshire.
A new Defra infrastructure board will speed up delivery of major projects, for example by working with developers at an early stage and ensuring decisions are proportionate, to avoid future bat tunnels or the ￡15 million kittiwake nesting structures as part of the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm.
And the Government is bringing forward plans to give more freedom to “trusted nature groups” such as the National Trust to carry out conservation and restoration work without needing multiple permits for schemes such as creating wetlands.
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The review also suggests reforming the habitats regulations, a move strongly resisted by wildlife groups who say they protect hundreds of the most important wildlife sites and species in England.
The Government said it has no immediate plans to take up that recommendation.
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Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, warned: “The Government’s planning reforms fall far short of the win-win approach ministers want and Corry seems to support.”
He said the risk to nature in new Government planning laws were “high” and promised benefits were “wafer thin”, as he called for regulatory reform to deliver a simpler, stronger focus on environmental recovery.
And he said: “For too long, environmental regulators have been too poor and too weak to enforce the law.
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“Their environmental duties have been too soft and vague to drive environmental recovery.
“In any reform, Defra must find strength with simplicity: all regulators and regulation must contribute to the urgent action needed to halt environmental decline by 2030.”