Land on the Horizon: Land policy in 2022

Since 2016, the UK Government has made clear that it intends to reform Environmental Impact Assessments in England. The ‘Planning for the Future’ white paper in August 2020 suggested moving to “a quicker, simpler framework”, with the existing system characterised as slow, inefficient, and overly-demanding on planning processes. Instead, the Government has stated its intention to create a system which is more dynamic and modern.

With the announcement of the Government’s upcoming legislative plans in the Queen’s Speech, the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB) has given us the first substantive insights into what we should expect for those reforms.

Read more in the full briefing paper.

Environmental Impact Assessments (and Strategic Environmental Assessments) will be replaced by a system of Environmental Outcomes Reports (EORs) under the proposed framework. This has the potential to represent a significant transformation of the role environmental assessments play in planning.

Though the Bill and its explanatory notes provide more details about what to expect, some information will not be clear until the Secretary of State indicates which outcomes will be specified and the exact consenting scenarios where EORs will apply. 

Read more in the full briefing paper.

Debates have already begun in the House of Commons to scrutinise the Bill, and the complex political situation currently facing the Government may prolong or delay the conclusion of those discussions. Regardless, if it is to become law, the Bill will need to pass through the parliamentary process.

Our EIA community has risen to the challenge of contemplating the nuances and technical demands of EIA’s future, bringing together expertise from different professionals and backgrounds. In the coming months, as the debate in Parliament continues and more details emerge about the Government’s vision for the future of environmental impact assessments, our community will release its own thought leadership on the future of EIA.

Read more in the full briefing paper.

Our member briefing note: ‘Influencing the UK Parliament’, first published in 2011 and most recently re-issued in 2021, provides an overview of some of the ways that environmental professionals can influence Parliament and legislation. 

In the UK, many issues of environmental policy are devolved to national administrations. If you live in Scotland, you can contact your Member of Scottish Parliament or learn more about influencing Scottish legislation. If you live in Wales, you can contact your Member of Senedd Cymru or learn more about the business of the Senedd. If you live in Northern Ireland, you can contact your local Member of the Legislative Assembly or learn more about the Assembly’s work.

Read more in the full briefing paper.

The long-term legally-binding targets framework under the Environment Act provides a key opportunity to set up the next decade of policy decisions around land and related systems. Decisions, such as what targets to set, their indicators, and how they should fit together with other targets, will be determinative in the future of these systems. The Government’s consultation on these targets proposes an approach which is broadly similar to the one set out in the Government’s policy paper in 2020. 

Several of the proposed targets will have implications for land, how it is used, and the policies which affect it. In particular, the biodiversity targets may have a significant impact on the UK’s approach to land. Other targets may have co-benefits or consequences for land. The water quality targets include one on nutrient pollution from agricultural land, which may affect the policy approach to agriculture, with consequences on land as well as for watercourses. 

The consultation has now closed, and the IES and its sister organisation, the IAQM, have submitted responses addressing the targets on both a theoretical and technical level. 

Read more in the full briefing paper.

As part of the shift from governance arrangements under EU directives to a UK-driven framework of environmental regulation, the Environment Act has made significant changes to the governance of issues affecting nature and natural systems such as water and air, with consequences for how land will be used and regulated going forwards.

Some of these changes will directly influence some of the most significant socio-economic systems affecting land, such as agriculture and planning, so there is a potential for substantial positive change, though this will rely on careful scrutiny and the ability of arms-length bodies such as the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) to challenge failures.

Read more in the full briefing paper.

In the context of environmental crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as socio-economic challenges linked to land use, such as housing shortages, there has been a notable shift in attention towards solutions which address land use from a more systemic and holistic perspective. The renewed policy focus on the ways we use land has ranged from the general, such as the House of Lords Committee on Land Use in England, to much more specific interventions, including on two of the most significant drivers of land use change, agriculture and planning.

Agricultural payments are now subject to reform in each of the devolved nations of the UK as the country moves away from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. In England, the opportunity presented by the Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) has been placed in doubt by recent implications that the Government is seeking to be less ambitious than initially-promised. Agricultural payments will likely to be an issue of political sensitivity until the end of 2022, so the future of agricultural land management remains somewhat uncertain.

Read more in the full briefing paper.

Following the Glover Review of Landscapes in 2019, the Government has set out its response on the future of National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) in England. A consultation on the Government’s plans was held at the start of 2022 and has now closed. As the Government reflects on the consultation, there will be further opportunities to build on existing aspirations. 

Current proposals do not fully reflect an implementation of the recommendations set out in the Glover Review, though the proposals demonstrate some progress towards them, including giving National Parks and AONBs an increased purpose to support nature’s recovery, as well as proposals to increase cooperation with planning, local authorities, and the private sector.

Read more in the full briefing paper.

This will be a critical year for nature, with negotiations linked to the UN’s COP15 Biodiversity Summit taking place. The primary goal of negotiations is to support the development of a new framework for addressing biodiversity loss at a global level, which has been left uncertain since 2020. The final discussions of the summit itself are now due to take place in Montreal in December 2022. Though this means another delay, the new arrangements indicate that there will be no further postponements after this one.

IPBES has also now published its Values Assessment, which provides an underpinning basis of evidence on the value of nature and the benefits it can provide.

Read more in the full briefing paper.

The Government’s Net Zero Strategy has a number of potential ramifications for land policy. The most immediate is the potential to secure co-benefits for land and other natural systems in the expected climate transition. The Strategy addresses the Government’s plans to increase sustainable land management, as well as to restore peatlands and woodlands for carbon sequestration, with co-benefits identified for land, soil, and biodiversity.

However, there has not been a strong enough commitment in the Net Zero Strategy, or in global commitments at COP26, to address the role of land use in the climate crisis, either as a solution or for their potential to increase climate risks if unaddressed.

Read more in the full briefing paper.