“… Boris Johnson was careful to say that deregulation “will not come in any great rush”. However, since the 2010 election, the Government has already shown some eagerness to disengage from the environmental agenda:
In December 2012 Eric Pickles made a statement to Parliament on the emerging new EIA Directive criticising the ‘regulatory creep’ of the European Union
In June 2013 the Environmental Audit Committee report on the UN Rio+20 Earth Summit noted that: ‘the Treasury appears to view the environment as a block to economic development.’
The Technical Consultation on planning carried out in 2014 stated that there was ‘over-implementation’ of environmental assessments;
In March 2015, the Code for Sustainable Homes was removed, and only partially reinstated into Building Regulations;
In July 2015, the Government announced it would no longer proceed with regulations to make all new homes carbon neutral.”
And that is only the tip of the iceberg. The current government has always wanted to reduce the environmental load on developers and now, with developers on the back foot, they will be inclined to put their interests first.
East Devon Watch 