The Government has signalled that the Environment Agency and Natural England must consolidate their planning advice processes so they provide a ‘seamless planning advice service to developers on environmental issues’.
That requirement came following a triennial review of the two Government advisers carried out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) which decided that the two organisations should remain as separate bodies and not merge.
In the two years to April 2013 NE and the EA were consulted on about 86,000 planning applications, pre-applications and environmental impact assessments consultations. Around nine per cent of the consultations were sent to both organisations.
The Government has said that the organisations should work closely together so that developers can have ‘a single conversation with the range of organisations involved. Their advice should be solution-focussed and provided early in the planning process when there is greatest potential to adjust developments in order to deliver required environmental outcomes’.
Defra said a consolidated planning advice service should:
· deliver efficiency savings in back and middle office areas of the functions
· support a broader range of skills at a local level, particularly increased commercial awareness and a solutions focus
· provide greater capacity for more proactive engagement with developers before the formal consultation stage
· make it easier for other Government organisations to engage with the bodies
· improve the consistency of advice provided by local teams, so that customers
· receive the same quality of advice regardless of where they are located.
Defra said:
‘As the bodies face continued pressure on budgets they will need to focus on providing advice for planning consultations that has the greatest impact on their priority objectives. To enable this, the bodies will continue to develop and maintain standing advice for low risk cases and input to local authority strategic planning documents such as local plans. This will help limit the number of cases where the EA and NE need to provide bespoke responses.’
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