As a 50 Shades of Planning Podcast listener you will be perceptive enough to have spotted that the United Kingdom has left the European Union. Town Planners will have noted in so doing that the regulatory regime for the assessment of environmental impact within the UK’s planning processes has been at least heavily influenced by, and at most grown to mirror, the rules, regulations and judgements emanating from and handed down in Brussells and Strasbourg.

Environmental Assessment is on the Government’s ‘to do list’, though perhaps not very near the top. Environment Minister George Eustice said in July 2020 that a new consultation on changing our approach to environmental assessment and mitigation in the planning system would be launched that Autumn. It wasn’t, but when it does appear what will it herald for EA in the UK after the EU? Is Brexit a welcome opportunity to reset EA on to a more proportionate footing? Is Brexit an unwelcome threat to a well-established regulatory regime that could be exploited through gaps in an ever-evolving planning process? Might Brexit actually be both?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Janice Morphet (Visiting Professor at UCL), Simon Ricketts (Partner at Town Legal LLP) and Lucy Wood (Director in the National Infrastructure & Environmental Planning Team at Barton Willmore).

Simon is on Twitter at @sricketts1 and Janice is @janicemorphet. Lucy wisely steers clear.

Some accompanying reading.

George Eustace’s speech on environmental recovery (July 2020).

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/george-eustice-speech-on-environmental-recovery-20-july-2020

‘Environmental Impact Assessment fit for the 21st Century’ by William Nicolle and Benedict McAleenan.

https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Planning-Anew.pdf

‘Brexit & Planning’ by Simon.

https://simonicity.com/2020/12/27/brexit-planning-an-update/

Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals by the Public Accounts Committee.

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/138912/time-is-running-out-government-must-move-on-from-aspirational-words-and-start-taking-the-hard-decisions/

‘Since I Left EU – The Future of Environmental Assessment’, a Town Legal Webinar.

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/fBb38De_I4Yj_k3pdgTb-tU_ND_s0bmvcec2hWwWykytvXxfms3GzplB-ie0MyjUXIRcvgLdnUPizMlV.WMevhO6_9R0nDfLx?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=1ccFNtFCRsiD014UPCtfGQ.1611249256049.2050083b081ea8cc0a1284d86864b609&_x_zm_rhtaid=371

Some accompanying listening.

'Frogs, Toads and Newts' by Frits Wentink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJHCRDvlEos