Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey has announced a ban from October 2023 in England on a range of single-use plastic items, mostly relating to food. These included plates, trays, bowls, cutlery and certain types of polystyrene cups and food containers. England uses 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery — most of which are plastic — and […]
Following months of pressure from civil society groups, the UK Government has signed on a public information campaign for improving home energy efficiency backed with £18m. It has also confirmed the details of the next phase of the ECO scheme, ECO+. Sadly, the only advice relating to water is “reducing the temperature a boiler heats […]
The Office for Environmental Protection, established to hold the Westminster government to account in terms of its environmental performance post-Brexit, has published its first report. It calls for the government to aim high and act now to ensure it achieves its ambitions and points out that ‘government strategy and policy have not yet proved successful’. […]
Demonstrating a welcome shift in attitude from the Government on water quality, Ministers have agreed with the majority of the recommendations in the Environmental Audit Committee report, Water quality in rivers. Read the Government Response Read the Report: Water Quality in Rivers Inquiry: Water Quality in Rivers Environmental Audit Committee The Government and the water […]
From Defra In 2020, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and Ofwat led a review of the water industry national environment programme (WINEP) ahead of the next price review (PR24). They wanted to ensure the next round of WINEP actions achieves greater environmental benefits for every pound invested by water companies […]
The government has announced that new homes and buildings in England will have to produce significantly less CO2 under new rules to help the country move towards net zero. Under the new regulations, CO2 emissions from new build homes must be around 30% lower than current standards and emissions from other new buildings, including offices […]
The government has published its Net Zero Strategy, along with the much-delayed Heat and Buildings Strategy. This Net Zero strategy builds on last year’s 10 point plan for a green industrial revolution, and is designed to keep us on track for UK carbon budgets, our 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution, and net zero by 2050. It includes: […]
Peak river flow climate change allowances by management catchment Information on peak river flow allowances for flood risk assessments, and flood and coastal risk projects, schemes and strategies. Flood risk assessments: climate change allowances When and how local planning authorities, developers and their agents should use climate change allowances in flood risk assessments. This guidance […]