The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has announced a series of reforms to environmental regulation aimed at driving economic growth and meeting the Government's housebuilding target of 1.5 million before the end of this Parliament.

A new report by think-tank Localis has warned that the delivery of a successful Local Power Plan will require “concerted action” across all levels of government, including the production of legislation to “formalise” local area energy planning, and investment in local government skills programmes.

A man who was convicted of waste offences has been ordered to pay an additional £278,492 after the Environment Agency re-opened an inquiry into his finances and discovered he had undeclared assets.

A new streamlined process for environmental regulations will be implemented for major projects and habitats regulations concerning bats are to be reviewed, the Government has said.

Thousands of potentially toxic sites that councils have identified as “high risk” have not been tested due to a lack of funds, a BBC investigation has revealed.

Audit Wales has criticised public authorities in Wales for failing to comply with key biodiversity requirements including the duty to prepare a biodiversity plan.

Herefordshire Council acted lawfully when it used planning policy to try to control agricultural waste, the High Court has found.

Newcastle Under Lyme Borough Council's leader has expressed frustration after a landfill operator embroiled in litigation over foul odours emanating from a site has entered into creditors voluntary liquidation.

Wirral Council has been threatened with a legal challenge over the potential clearing of rare saltmarsh and dune habitats.

The Supreme Court will next week consider whether Regulation 63 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (“the Habitats Regulations”) require an ‘appropriate assessment’ to be undertaken for subsequent approvals after the grant of outline planning permission at a further consent stage, i.e. at the approval of reserved matters and discharge of conditions stages.

A landfill operator who sought a judicial review against the Environment Agency's decision to issue a closure notice for the site has had their application refused by the High Court.

Planning permission to expand a poultry farm in Monmouthshire has been quashed by the High Court after the county council agreed the decision failed to comply with the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Wales) Regulations 2017.

The Government "must act urgently and decisively to catch up if it is to meet its legal obligations" under the Environment Act 2021, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has warned.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed has appealed against a judicial review decision reached last year when Pickering Fishery Association successfully argued that the Environment Agency had failed in its legal duties to protect a former trout stream damaged by sewage pollution and runoff from fish farms.

Bristol City Council has been forced to rethink a plan to buy energy from community groups after advice that this might fall foul of public procurement rules.

The Government has relaunched the Net Zero Council, which will have representation from local government and civil society for the first time.

National park authorities are to be handed a general power of competence, “which will clarify their legal framework, removing restrictions which prevent an entrepreneurial approach, and cut through bureaucracy to remove barriers to achieving more for people and nature”, the Government has announced.

The High Court has agreed to hear a judicial review challenge of Havering Council's decision not to allocate an illegal landfill behind pollution issues and wildfires as 'contaminated land'.

A landfill site that is the subject of a legal challenge from Newcastle Under Lyme Council for emitting odorous gasses has been hit with a closure order from the Environment Agency.

Regulator the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has been granted permission by the Court of Appeal to intervene in a case which could clarify how Government departments should consider environmental issues in policy making.

Law firm Leigh Day has said the High Court will hear a judicial review brought by objectors to the redevelopment of the former Bristol Zoo site.

The Supreme Court has granted permission to appeal over whether the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 ("the Habitats Regulations"), properly interpreted, required an "appropriate assessment" before a local planning authority decided whether to discharge conditions on the approval of reserved matters, having previously granted outline planning permission, without such an…

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has appointed Jeremy Phillips KC and Horatio Waller, both of Francis Taylor Building Chambers, for its legal action against the operators of an odorous landfill site.

The High Court has rejected a judicial review challenge of the Government's plan to adapt to the impacts of climate change, known as the Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3).

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) is seeking permission to intervene in a Court of Appeal case relating to housing energy efficiency standards, which the watchdog said would set a precedent concerning how the government takes account of environmental issues in its policies.

Economist Dan Corry has been appointed to carry out an internal review into the regulation and regulators at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

The Supreme Court has allowed a woman’s appeal against the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland’s refusal of permission for judicial review against the regulator of a landfill site on the basis that there were “suitable alternative remedies”.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a practice recommendation to a water company after finding it was using too "narrow" a definition of 'environmental' to deny Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests.