The Government has published a planning reform policy working paper paper on development and nature recovery proposing a new approach which uses funding from development to deliver environmental improvements and moves more responsibility for the improvements onto the state rather than developers.

Introducing the policy paper, the Government said the aim of this approach is to free up and accelerate development while ensuring better environmental outcomes.

The paper is now seeking views on the proposals for a new approach to how housing and infrastructure development can meet its environmental obligations and contribute to nature recovery.

The Government says it wants to accelerate development while going beyond simply offsetting harm to unlock the positive impact this development could have in driving nature recovery.

The policy paper states:

“These working proposals reflect valuable feedback already received from representatives of the development industry, nature conservation organisations, nature service providers, and local government...

“Instead of environmental protections being seen as a barrier to growth, unnecessarily deterring planning applications and hindering the pace at which homes can be delivered, we want to unlock a win-win for the economy and for nature.”

According to the Government, the planning reforms will support developers to submit good quality applications which deliver for communities and the environment. However, the paper suggests that some environmental obligations may be more efficiently discharged - with better outcomes for development and growth, as well as nature, water, air, and climate resilience - at a more strategic level, rather than on project-by-project basis.

Photo: Great Crested Newt

The policy paper outlines taking the following three steps for which the Planning and Infrastructure Bill would provide the necessary legislative underpinning:

1. Moving responsibility for identifying actions to address environmental impacts away from multiple project-specific assessments in an area to a single strategic assessment and delivery plan. This will allow action to address environmental impacts from development to be taken strategically, at an appropriate geographic scale,rather than at the level of an individual project.
2. Moving more responsibility for planning and implementing these strategic actions onto the state, delivered through organisations with the right expertise and with the necessary flexibility to take actions that most effectively deliver positive outcomes for nature.
3. Allowing impacts to be dealt with strategically in exchange for a financial payment that helps fund strategic actions, so development can proceed more quickly. Project-level environmental assessments are then limited only to those harms not dealt with strategically.

The Government is propising to establish a framework that allows for a suitable public delivery body to consider which actions are needed to address an environmental impact (or impacts) strategically, for a relevant range of development types, across an appropriate area and for an appropriate period of time. The delivery body would then secure these actions using funding provided by developers, meaning that there would be no need to consider the environmental impact on a case-by-case basis.

Once the framework is place, the relevant appropriate delivery body for the issue in question related to a specific environmental obligation – for example, Natural England for nutrient pollution – would then be tasked with addressing it strategically via a Delivery Plan. This would include ensuring they:

1. assess the underlying environmental issues;
2. set out the actions necessary to deal with the environmental impacts from in-scope development at a strategic level;
3. present opportunities for further environmental uplift to contribute towards putting the environment on a path to recovery; 
4. calculate the cost of these interventions and apportion the proportionate costs to relevant developments

The Government would also create a mechanism to secure contributions from developers to fully fund the actions a delivery body identifies in a Delivery Plan. This would ensure the environmental obligations would be met through a single payment which contributed to the delivery of the actions identified. The Government would establish a Nature Restoration Fund to underpin actions identified by Delivery Plans under this mechanism.

For developers, where their proposed development was covered by a Delivery Plan, they would commit to making the relevant payment into the Nature Restoration Fund, which would be used to fund the strategic actions.

In some instances the Government said it may provide upfront funding to a delivery body to commence actions identified in Delivery Plans in advance of need, with costs recovered over time as development comes forward.

The Government is now seeking views on the options set out in the paper – thre policy paper concludes by asking a series of specific questions.

If taken forward, the Government says it would use the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to make the necessary legislative changes to establish a more efficient and effective way for Habitats Regulations and other environmental obligations to be discharged, pooling individual contributions to deliver the strategic interventions necessary to drive nature recovery.

Click here to download PLANNING REFORM WORKING PAPER DEVELOPMENT AND NATURE RECOVERY in full.