Proposed changes to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, with regards to developments, water quality and protected wildlife sites, will reduce the level of environmental protection provided for in law and amount to a regression, the OEP is warning.
The Office for Environmental Protection writes:
OEP Chair Dame Glenys Stacey has written to the Secretaries of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to set out its advice following proposed changes to the law with regards to developments, water quality and protected wildlife sites.
We state that the proposed changes would demonstrably reduce the level of environmental protection provided for in existing environmental law, and that the Government has not adequately explained how, alongside such weakening of environmental law, new policy measures will ensure it still meets its objectives for water quality and protected site condition.
