The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has released a review of environmental regulations, which finds the current system “outdated, inconsistent and highly complex – delivering for neither nature nor growth”. 

The review, led by economist Dan Corry, makes 29 recommendations for streamlining regulation, all of which, the government says, it “is actively considering”. 

Environment secretary Steve Reed (pictured) says: “As part of the plan for change, I am rewiring Defra and its arms-length bodies to boost economic growth and unleash an era of building while also supporting nature to recover.”

Dan Corry adds: “Planning reforms and a new Nature Restoration Fund will unlock much-needed housing delivery and infrastructure whilst supporting nature recovery at scale.  

“It will help developers meet their environmental obligations more efficiently, making it easier to build vital infrastructure like wind farms, railways, and roads, gigafactories and data centres.” 

The government says it has already begun work on some key measures, including: 

• Appointing a single, lead regulator to speed up major infrastructure projects that will “end the merry-go-round of developers seeking planning approvals from multiple authorities who often disagree with each other” 

• A “rapid review” of the existing catalogue of environmental guidance   

• Setting clearer measurable objectives for all Defra’s regulators, starting with Natural England and the Environment Agency, to “drive performance improvements and focus delivery on government priorities”

• A new Defra Infrastructure Board to “accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects” with stronger oversight by Defra and its arm’s-length bodies to “unblock barriers to development at an early stage” 

• Rolling regulatory reform will be used “to pinpoint rapid actions, quick wins, and longer-term areas for improvements to regulation” 

Corry adds: “Currently, nature groups, developers and farmers are forced to navigate and comply with a complex patchwork of over 3,500 regulations – many of which are out of date and duplicative – as well as multiple overlapping regulators, all while shelling out vast sums in legal costs.  

“This rigid and archaic approach not only stunts growth but impedes large-scale nature recovery, holds up the delivery of homes and infrastructure and creates an unnecessary financial and administrative burden.” 

In 2023, former Conservative housing secretary Michael Gove unsuccessfully attempted to rip up water pollution rules that builders blamed for exacerbating England’s housing crisis but which environmental groups said are essential for the protection of the country’s rivers.