Comment

Environmental Outcome Regulations – It’s happening, but uncertainty on implementation remains

The past week has seen a lot of press coverage on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reform as part of the Government’s next steps on planning reform. It has been confirmed that Environmental Outcome Reports (EOR) will be implemented soon and would replace EIA. In this article we look at what’s changing, the previous consultation and where more clarity is needed.

Environmental Outcome Reports have essentially been on pause since March 2023, when the previous Government consulted on the new environmental assessment regime.

We prepared a detailed response to the EOR consultation in 2023 and also responded on behalf of developers.

EOR implementation – what’s changing?

We now have certainty from the current Government on its intention to implement EOR in England, adopting the strategy developed by the previous Government. The key reasons cited dare to make environmental assessment ‘simpler and much clearer’ and ‘save developers time and money’ – which can only be a good thing.

This certainty follows the Government’s Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery in mid-December 2024 which outlined the potential interaction and co-ordination of EOR with Delivery Plans, with the potential for some environmental issues to be addressed at a strategic level (e.g. water availability and quality; nutrient neutrality and air quality in sensitive locations).

EOR would replace EIA. Under the new approach, planning decisions would be informed by how projects respond to nationally and locally set environmental objectives – which would be a big commitment by the Government to set these and keep them updated. These conclusions would be reported and informed by baseline data collection and assessment as per the current regime.

What worked and what didn’t from the previous consultation 

There were many positives from the consultation including:

• Consolidation of many sets of Regulations.  
• A focus on digital reform.
• Better reporting on alternatives and how they are considered.
• Better alignment between spatial strategy and the project scale.
• Improvements in how mitigation is developed and committed to and its associated monitoring and management.

Some of this is already being delivered by some EIA practitioners but it’s not currently regulated, creating a great variance in EIA quality.  

In responding to the consultation, we also raised the importance of identifying impacts and their resolution earlier in the design process which was set out by Government in earlier papers.

However, there were concerns. These included:

• The replacement of an established, legally tested and stable regime with an untested one, creating legal uncertainty.
• A new system in England would be very different to the rest of the UK’s devolved nations (and the EU more widely).
• The inability for co-ordination with other decision-making regimes which focus on impacts rather than outcomes.
• Loss of holistic and joined-up thinking in decision-making.
• Limited focus on ‘people and communities’ and ‘climate change’.

The Office of Environmental Protection (OEP) also prepared a report on EOR for the Government in 2023 and concluded that EOR as set out in 2023 ‘could make things worse’.

Where more clarity is needed

Everyone would like to see a more proportionate approach to EIA, however, it is highly likely that an objective led system would need to be informed by impacts and therefore, the fundamental question is whether EOR is a further ‘add on’ to the current regime rather than a replacement. EIA reform is needed and is an exciting opportunity, however, we do need to be careful that replacement does create certainty, proportionality and fewer delays to consenting.

We all know that developers need clarity on timescales for implementation very quickly so they can plan ahead for consents and permissions.  New regulations would need to be subject to a transitionary period.  We recommended that this should be a minimum of two years to limit disruption to developers in their project planning and delivery. For success, any new system also needs to engage experts, respond to the OEP’s concerns and be carefully trialled across different project types.

The future is set, but when will it arrive?

All we know on the programme for now is that we can expect a ‘roadmap for the delivery of EOR in the coming months’, potentially sooner. We hope this sets the clarity needed on implementation.

Whilst we know EOR is coming, how it is delivered in practice remains very uncertain. We still have the opportunity to avoid the valid concerns raised by the industry and EIA professionals whilst making the most of EIA reform.   

For further information, contact Andy Ricketts.

29 January 2025