Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery

In early 2025, the UK Government published a working paper on Planning Reform for Development and Nature Recovery. The paper tackled a number of major issues, including the future of the planning system under the new Government, the role of nature recovery, and indications about the future of Environmental Outcomes Reports as a successor to Environmental Impact Assessment.

The IES worked closely with our members to produce a response, as well as with Communities including the Foundation for Water Research (FWR)’s Water Resources and Quality Technical Panel, the Land Condition Community (LCC), and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Community.

Our response supported a transformative approach to the planning system to deliver sustainable wellbeing, supporting progress towards a country with thriving people, a healthy economy, and a flourishing environment. We made a number of productive suggestions to help the Government achieve its goals while leading to a better planning process and improving outcomes for nature recovery.

Several of the recommendations made in our response were recognised and adopted by the Government, although its approach to nature and planning has become increasingly controversial, delivering better outcomes for neither nature nor development.

To find out more about what the IES and our EIA Community think about the planning system and how we could reform it, read chapter 10 of Our Shared Mission for Sustainable Wellbeing: 'Modern impact assessment in a sustainable planning system'.

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