Environment Bill becomes an Act

Environment Bill becomes an Act

On Tuesday 9 November the long-awaited Environment Bill received Royal Assent and became the Environment Act 2021.  The Act covers a plethora of environmental regulatory issues in the post-Brexit world relating to water, waste, air quality and deforestation – and perhaps most importantly it establishes a regulator in the Office for Environmental Protection.  But it is the principle of biodiversity net gain which will be of most interest to landowners and developers whereby the majority of new development will be required to demonstrate a net gain in biodiversity of 10% or more.

Our previous blog When policy agendas clash: what’s happening with the Environment Bill? from 23rd September 2021 covered the latest developments including some important toughening up of the Bill imposed by the House of Lords.

Much-needed further detail is still to be written into statutory instruments but the shape of the biodiversity net gain regime is unchanged from our summary of it here and developers should keep in mind the two year grace period they will have before the 10% requirement kicks in.  A fuller summary of the net gain proposals can be found in this vlog. Biodiversity Net Gain for Developers and Landowners

Contact our planning lawyers in Sussex and Kent

Oliver Bussell is Partner and planning lawyer in Rix & Kay’s Commercial Property & Planning Team. For more information, please email oliverbussell@rixandkay.co.uk or call T: 01732 448050.