HARRIS LAMB WELCOMES THE PASSING OF THE ENVIRONMENT ACT 2021
Harris Lamb’s team of in-house ecologists have welcomed the news that the landmark Environment Bill has finally passed into law.
The Bill was granted Royal Assent on November 9th, meaning that it is now an Act of Parliament, the Environment Act 2021.
The Act aims to ensure the maintenance and improvement of the country’s environmental protections, and sets out a comprehensive and world-leading vision to protect and allow future generations to prosper.
Dr Holly Smith, Director of Environment at Harris Lamb, said that the Act will see new legislation introduced, bringing into force legally-binding environmental improvement targets, in particular a mandatory approach to biodiversity net gain.
Holly said: “This is a huge step in the right direction and we welcome its passage into law.
“It is hoped that the Government will now support an independent Office of Environmental Protection in order to provide a clear target to significantly reduce the UK’s global environmental footprint. In passing this milestone Bill into law, particularly in light of its timing around the COP26 Summit, the Government is declaring its commitment to implementing far-reaching changes, including waste management, improving air quality, delivering sustainable water resources and restoring and enhancing nature and green spaces – most of which we can all as individuals make significant steps in helping to support.
“The area that we as a team are particularly pleased to see highlighted is that of restoring and enhancing nature and green spaces: ever since Harris Lamb set up its Environmental division in February 2018, we have worked closely with our residential and commercial developers to support their aspirations for biodiversity net gain, stepping up our commitment to educating them on the necessary steps over the past year.
“Developers are now required to ensure habitats for wildlife are enhanced, with a minimum 10 per cent increase in habitat value for wildlife compared with the pre-development baseline. Many of our clients already aim to achieve this standard, but together with our planning team we will be working with them to understand how this can be achieved going forward” she said.
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