Planning Reform And Environmental Objectives: Collaboration Or Collision?

Can the government's much-anticipated planning reforms speed up development while maintaining environmental protections or are we set on a collision course between competing priorities? Christian Drage and Clare Eccles of law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner take a look

While targets to reduce carbon emissions to protect our planet and the natural world are rightly becoming more ambitious, the adjustments needed to human behaviours, expectations and economic ambitions to achieve these targets presents a significant ongoing challenge.

Planning is just one area that must deal with this challenge head-on. On the one hand, the planning system must promote and deliver development to support population and economic growth, but it must do this in such a way that conserves and enhances the natural environment and mitigates adverse impact.