Will 2024 be a turning point for environmental change?
According to the Oxford University Press, the children’s word of the year for 2023 was ‘climate change’.
With last year proving to be the hottest on record, and with all the recent flooding in the UK, perhaps it’s not surprising that climate change was the definitive term for young people.
It also shows how aware the next generation is to their environment and their willingness to engage with meaningful change and to understand complex issues.
As we power on into 2024, we’ve been looking at some of the changes in legislation coming up this year which we hope will have a positive impact for the environment and climate change – and benefit not just our children but future generations too.
We have three key questions to ask.
Will the mandatory requirements for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) come into place this year? Land Studio’s Director of Ecology Val Gateley says:
The Biodiversity Net Gain policy was approved as part of the 2021 Environment Act to ensure that developers leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was before development.
These benefits include the creation of wildlife habitats, combating climate change through carbon capture, reducing the risk of flooding and improving air and water quality.
We were expecting the policy to be mandatory in England in November last year for all new development projects of a certain size. It didn’t happen and we’ve just heard that the new date for becoming mandatory is February 12.
Why is it so important? BNG has four key elements which include identifying a robust biodiversity baseline of a site and the habitats and species that are there, stating targets for biodiversity net gain, selecting appropriate ways of achieving those targets and, crucially, monitoring the results over a 30-year period to ensure the objectives are actually met because it takes time to see the value.
Each project will have to ensure that there’s a minimum of 10% net gain in biodiversity as a result (we’d like to see this percentage increase in the future to unlock more environmental benefits). It means planting new trees and hedgerows, creating wildlife corridors and improving degraded habitats.
BNG brings many benefits for a healthier natural environment which is why, as a nature-led studio that considers both the built and natural environments in equal measure, we’re all looking forward to the mandatory requirements coming in – and hope they won’t be pushed back again.
Almost half of the UK’s economy is linked to nature and, as one of the most biodiverse depleted countries in the world, restoring our natural environments is crucial to building our future green economy.
With a change of party expected in 2024, what will happen to the Government’s 25-year Environment Plan? Land Studio Associate Landscape Architect Kate Richards, who is also Chair of the Landscape Institute Wales, says:
The Environment Plan sets out what the UK will do to improve the environment within a generation.
As climate change impacts on our weather conditions, it’s important that we do what we can now to create more nature-rich, healthy and climate resilient places for the generations to come.
In Wales, the government has made admirable changes to its Planning Policy to ensure that all planning applications include a Green Infrastructure Statement.
Green Infrastructure is a network of natural spaces designed to deliver benefits for both people and our planet. It includes parks, open spaces, playing fields and woodlands as well as street trees, allotments, private gardens, green roofs, sustainable drainage systems and soils as well as rivers, streams and canals.
In January 2023, Natural England published a Green Infrastructure Framework to support local planning authorities and developers in designing and creating ‘quality, nature-rich, climate resilient urban green spaces’.
The idea is that everyone should be able to access green space in their local area and reap the wellbeing benefits of spending time in nature.
As more properties are built to meet the UK’s national housing stock shortage, it’s vital that Green Infrastructure is at the heart of good design.
We’re living in a time of political unrest on a global scale all of which could have a bearing on environmental policies and our response to climate change. If we’re going to do anything to correct our current environmental trajectory, we need to think about our actions individually and collectively to make a difference. We need to have more understanding and respect for nature.
Will 2024 actually be the year Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act comes into force in England? Lisa Sawyer, Land Studio’s Director of Civil Engineering and a Drainage Engineer, says:
In June 2008 the Pitt review made recommendations in relation to SuDS and these were incorporated into Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
Schedule 3 was not actually implemented and instead the English Government decided to increase the use of SuDS through planning policy in April 2015. It was decided that SuDS should be included in all new major developments (10 homes and above), unless there is very good reason why they shouldn’t, and it is this policy that is still in place today.
In August 2020 this planning-led approach wasn’t really working, as ambiguity in the non-statutory technical standards was making it quite difficult for the planning authority to ensure SuDS had been constructed as designed and that maintenance was being carried out. It also didn’t enforce any multifunctional SuDS features so only concentrated on water storage requirements.
In 2019 the Welsh Government however decided to enact Schedule 3 with England watching to see what happened.
Positives have been seen with sites giving space for the use of green SuDS features which not only stored water but also provided water treatment, biodiversity and amenity enhancements. Schedule 3 provided a framework for the approval and adoption of drainage systems via an approving body (known as a SAB) and national standards to ensure multifunctional drainage designs were provided.
Due to the short comings identified in the English planning approach and the successful implementation in Wales (albeit with a few teething problems), a review published in January 2023 recommended that the English Government must implement Schedule 3.
Will 2024 actually be the year this happens?
At Land Studio, we’ve successfully gained SAB approval on a number of schemes across North Wales including a residential development in Llannefydd, Conwy, where we specified a sustainable drainage strategy to serve a proposed new-build dwelling on a unique mountainside site and an industrial development in Wrexham.
We’re currently working on the SAB process alongside landscape design for a new school in Bontnewydd, Gwynedd.
· If you want to discuss any of the above, or to find out what impact it may have on your development, then please contact the studio on 01244 319019 or email info@landstudio-uk.com