Ministers tell Environment Agency to wave planning applications through | Environment Agency

The Environment Agency has been informed by ministers to signal through planning applications with minimum resistance in the context of a regulatory reshuffle designed to increase economic growth and connect the government’s financial hole.

Agency officials say they have been told to do as little as legally possible to prevent the approval of housing requests and that the government has written higher housing service advisers to speed up the process.

Some believe that the existence of the agency is threatened since the pressure from Rachel Reeves to eliminate the Quantes of the Government as part of its dashboard for growth. Government representatives insist that this is not the case.

There is a broader thrust of the Chancellor to inject more emergency into the development of housing and infrastructure, which she hopes will help her fill a hole of several billion pounds in the next budget.

But environmental activists warn that the wings cup of the Environment Agency could harm wildlife and natural world.

An agency source said that the staff of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) “pushed development at all costs”.

They added: “We take a step back from planning and the organizational buffoon is to do the minimum required to fulfill our legal functions but nothing more. They are looking for legal advice as to the minimum with which they can get away with it.”

They added: “There are many examples of the place where nature and development occur together, but in the future, the EA does not seem to want to be part.”

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said that he had not recognized the statements, but acknowledged that the MHCLG staff had been introduced into the agency. They added: “EA continues to provide solid technical advice to ensure that environmental protections are taken into account in planning decisions.

“The ambitious objective of the government to build 1.5 million new houses is vital. To support this, we quickly reformed our planning service, now provide advice in a consistent manner on the deadline for 21 days and use our technical expertise to achieve the best results for the environment and economic growth. ”

Reeves told ministers to make a new push to eliminate the quantities that their departments supervise, sources indicating that the Environment Department has been distinguished.

The Department, whose new Secretary of State, Emma Reynolds, was previously Minister of the Treasury, controls 37 agencies, notably Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Office for Environmental Protection.

The ministers of this government and the previous conservative administration expressed their frustration in the face of the capacity of some of the environmental regulators to maintain development. The chancellor blamed them for having smothered economic growth by demanding that developers build costly fauna protections such as the infamous “bat tunnel” of 100 million pounds sterling on the high-speed rail line HS2.

The Political Environment Agency The rules of nutrient neutrality which prohibit developments in dozens of regions across the country if they should add to the nutrients to neighboring rivers.

The rules are in place to prevent the accumulation of algae and other plants, which can suffocate aquatic life, but have been blamed for the lack of construction of houses in certain areas.

The role of the agency in the judgment of planning requests is devoted to law, but Reeves works on a bill on planning and infrastructure which could scam many rules concerning authorized developments. New rules could also be included in the next water bill.

Environmental activists say that the deletion of the planning process agency could affect British fauna.

Ali Plummer, director of politics and plea in fauna and the Countryside link, said: “The deregulation will not accelerate the recovery of nature; It will simply leave us poorly designed developments, increased pollution and less access to nature. Lower regulation is not the foundation from the next generation. ”

Alexa Culver, lawyer for the ecological consulting company RSK Wilding, said: “The properly funded and independent regulators are an essential element of any prosperous economy. The suffocation of the role of the Environment Agency and their independence goes against all the principles of good regulation. ”