Government Levelling Up amendments: ‘such reasoning is not permitted outside Wonderland'
UPDATE - in September 2023 the House of Lords defeated this amendment. Because it was a last-minute addition, it did not go to the Commons and was dropped from the Bill.
Today Rights Community Action release a legal opinion, prepared by Alex Goodman KC of Landmark Chambers, on the last minute Government amendments on nutrient neutrality, published last week. These amendments, if they pass, will mean planning authorities no longer have to consider nutrient neutrality as a material factor in planning applications.
The legal opinion states that:
1) The amendments will diminish current environmental protections.
2) Adding these amendments at this late stage triggers constitutional questions about proper parliamentary process. Of special note is the Henry VIII Clause (giving executive powers that bypass proper parliamentary scrutiny), which has been introduced at a point in the Bill which means it won't have been subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
3) It will require Councils/Planning authorities to assume that a development won't have an adverse affect, even if…
it will,
even if they know it will,
and even if the developer knows and says it will,
This will result in perverse decisions that the legal opinion states would have a judge on appeal 'make some wry comment that such reasoning is not permitted outside Wonderland'
4) Just as perversely, they will also reduce environmental protections for areas that have been classed as habitats - more than it will for areas that are designated as less valuable and are not habitats.
Naomi Luhde-Thompson, director of Rights Community Action said;
"The Government's eleventh hour amendments will rip out environmental protections for our precious rivers and habitats. Deliberate pollution is mandated by this bill. Local authorities will be left helpless in demanding mitigation. Taxpayers will pay the inevitable price of clean up while developers will have a licence to print money."
