Michael Hutchinson

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A major overhaul of the UK’s planning (zoning) system was unveiled on 30 July.  This is aimed at tackling the UK’s chronic housing shortage, as well as the challenge of net zero.  The lack of affordable housing in the south-east of England, for example, means that average house prices there are ten times the average wage.  At the same time, public sector housebuilding has slowed to a trickle and rents have soared.  Similarly, the planning system has been identified as a major block on renewables and low-carbon developments in the UK.     

In response, the new UK Government has announced significant changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (“NPPF“) which guides decision-making on individual planning applications as well as the content of local planning policies (against which applications for individual sites are assessed).  The main aim is to kick-start an unprecedented programme of housebuilding with a huge proposed target of 371,000 per year against current delivery of about 200,000 units per year.  There will also be increased requirements on developers to provide affordable housing on new housing developments.  Commentary so far has rightly focused on these important housing-related changes in the draft NPPF, but the draft NPPF goes much further than housing.  Specific focus is given to renewables and low-carbon projects, digital technology, gigafactories, laboratories and logistics.

In this briefing, we summarise the main proposed changes in the draft NPPF and identify further likely upcoming reforms to be made to the planning system including through the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Continue Reading UK planning reforms to focus on social developments and net zero

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Deforestation is now the second leading cause of climate change globally, after burning fossil fuels, and is responsible for around 11% of all greenhouse gas emissions.  In the last 60 years more than half of tropical forests worldwide have been destroyed, reducing biodiversity and endangering rare species (see Fifth Special Report of Session – 2023-24:  …

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In a survey carried out by HSBC in 2023, 97% of real estate developers and investors said net zero was important to their business and 59% of the largest real estate companies said net zero was their top priority.

A third of companies in the sector already have Transition Plans and the push for formalising Transition Plans across the sector is increasing.

In April 2024, the Transition Plan Taskforce (“TPT”) published its final set of transition plan resources to help businesses transition to net zero.

In this article, we consider the guidance available to the real estate sector in preparing Transition Plans (“TP”).Continue Reading Transition Plans & Real Estate

The UK Government launched a Consultation on the introduction of a UK CBAM on 21 March 2024.  The Consultation closes on 13 June 2024.  This follows the announcement, in December 2023, that the UK would implement a UK CBAM similar to the EU CBAM which came into effect on 1 October 2023.

In this update…

Governance

Most UK climate litigation concerns challenges to the decisions of public authorities on projects with environmental effects or policies being adopted by Government that can have significant impacts on the environment.

A series of five recent decisions in the courts – all of which have rejected challenges based on climate grounds – show that the UK courts are extremely reluctant to call into question the decisions of national or local public authorities in the case of individual projects.  However, as we will see, there is room for challenges to be successful in limited circumstances which we consider below.Continue Reading A Wrap-Up of Recent UK Climate Change Litigation

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A new requirement for most developments to achieve a minimum level of “biodiversity net gain” will come into force in November this year.  For some this will be an additional burden when preparing planning applications, but others will see it as an opportunity to create value through enhancing biodiversity whilst burnishing their “green” credentials.

Continue…