Legal Case: The right to plan as if climate change matters
Last year we won our Salt Cross Garden Village case in the High Court . This was an unusual success in climate litigation, upholding efforts to reach net zero in the face of regressive acts by the then government.
The Government issued a ‘Written Ministerial Statement’ (a policy) in England to prevent local government from having the best climate change policies possible in their local plans in December 2023. They did this while failing the very first test set by the Environment Act 2021, which requires Ministers to consider the environmental impact of the policies they make. If this policy is allowed to stand, there are around 1 million future homes at risk of not being zero carbon.
The Government admitted it had not complied with the duty to consider the environment impact of the policy. Despite support from over seventy local authorities, developers who are leading the way, and local communities, the Government has still not changed the policy.
We challenged the WMS before Mrs Justice Lieven, but she allowed the government its retrospective environmental analysis and agreed with the Government that it can restrict local plans from being too ambitious on climate.
We're facing a climate and nature crisis. But without this appeal, all policy made by Ministers in whatever department, will not really have to think about environmental principles in a way that makes a difference.
We’ve been granted permission to appeal the decision of Mrs Justice Lieven [link to judgement] to the Court of Appeal. Lord Justice Lewison granting permission [link to permission document] commented that both grounds of appeal raise important issues and have sufficient prospects of success to merit full consideration by the Court. Also recognising the importance of the case, Lewison LJ granted permission to the Office of Environmental Protection to intervene by oral submissions and to Green Alliance to intervene in writing.
We're facing a climate and nature crisis. But without this appeal, all policy made by Ministers in whatever department, will not really have to think about environmental principles in a way that makes a difference.
It isn't right that local plans that want to ensure that the homes for all of us are built to be cheap and energy efficient to run and fit for the future are being prevented by central Government, and it isn't right that the Government are defending their approach to an environmental duty that means it isn't worth the paper it is written on.
We are represented by some of the best lawyers in this field: Ricardo Gama at Leigh Day and counsel Alex Goodman KC and Alex Shattock at Landmark Chambers.
What are we doing and what do we need?
We need to fund our Appeal to overturn the Government's policy to stop local government planning for climate change and to strengthen a hugely important environmental duty on Ministers. Please donate to and share our crowdjustice funding page.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/support-our-fight-to-let-local/
