Just before Christmas, the government (Defra and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) published a Planning Reform Working Paper.

The paper invites views on the government’s proposed new approach to development and nature recovery. It forms part of a series of working papers on different aspects of planning reform, designed to inform further policy development in collaboration with the wider sector.

The paper proposes a new approach which uses funding from development to deliver environmental improvements, and moves more responsibility for these improvements onto the state rather than developers. The aim of this approach is to free up and accelerate development while ensuring better environmental outcomes.