From 25 Year Environment Plan to NPPF, whatever happened to environmental net gains?
It is only two months since the 25 Year Environment Plan was launched, and now the Government has published its consultation version of a draft revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), giving a timely opportunity firmly to embed the principle of ‘environmental net gain’ into planning policy.
The 25 Year Environment Plan, proudly launched to much acclaim on 11 January 2018 by the Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Michael Gove, sets an ambitious goal:
“We will champion sustainable development … and keep our pledge to hand over our planet to the next generation in a better condition than we inherited it”
The very first action in the very first chapter of the 25 Year Environment Plan is to embed an ‘environmental net gain’ principle for development including housing:
“We want to establish strategic, flexible and locally tailored approaches that recognise the relationship between the quality of the environment and development. That will enable us to achieve measurable improvements for the environment – ‘environmental net gains’ – while ensuring economic growth and reducing costs, complexity and delays for developers”
Jeremy Owen looks at how the draft revised NPPF fares in light of the 25 Year Environment Plan’s aim.
