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07 May 2015
Larger development projects will now be exempt from Environmental Impact Assessment.
The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations, set out those developments which may require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). However, developments below a certain size have never required a full assessment of environmental impacts, including potential effects on biodiversity.
The government has increased the thresholds below which EIAs are not required, for residential, other urban and industrial estate developments, in an effort to reduce bureaucracy for developers and the burden on local authorities. In each case, the previous threshold of 0.5 hectares has been increased to 5 hectares; although, following concerns about the impacts of high density developments, residential developments of more than 150 units will also be liable for an EIA.
It should be noted that further changes to the Town and Country Planning Regulations are expected before May 2017, to meet the stipulations of the European Union (EU) Directive on Environmental Impact Assessment adopted in April 2014. These changes update the original Directive adopted in 1985 to acknowledge new priorities in planning policy including: biodiversity protection, resource efficiency and sustainability, climate change and risks of accident.
In addition, there have been suggestions from government for a further increase in the thresholds above, to as much as 30ha and 1000 homes. This would appear to contradict the substance of the EU Directive.
For the full story see the Environment Bulletin from Freeth's.
