Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution

As the premier business organisation in the UK representing organisations both large and small, we welcome the opportunity to submit evidence to this enquiry. Environmental planning affects everyone and with the advent of many new initiatives, a review of the system is welcomed.

Environmental Sustainability
(1a)   The pursuit of Sustainable Development has been evolving over the past few years and as such it is difficult to assess its impact so far. At the moment there seems to be a desire for more holistic thinking concerning the environment and activities attempting to protect it, for example, the concept of assessing the impact of and assigning responsibility for the whole lifecycle of a product. Sustainable development could encourage holistic thinking, but the full impacts can only be guessed at and will not be obvious for a number of years.

The clearest 'definition' of Sustainable Development as comprising three strands, environmental, social and economic allows the possibility of an integrated approach to these different aspects of policy. Planning for the environment should allow this integrated thinking to occur and not just prevent certain activities in one place transferring them, and their consequences elsewhere. This was the thinking behind the original IPC regime (now PPC) which sought to control emissions to all media to prevent decreases to one increasing emissions to another. Extending such holistic thinking to the full range of environmental regulations would perhaps result in a rationalisation of the attendant bureaucracy, a welcome outcome for business.

(b)   The opportunity presented by 'win win' scenarios should always be explored. Often the environmental objectives are played off against others, such as economic and social. A more integrated approach could prevent this from happening. For example, rather thanthe simplistic approach in the debate about Twyford Down (ie. whether to have a road with major environmental impact, or not to have a road and increased congestion) integrated thinking would have suggested an alternative approach (eg tunnelling) that secured economic benefits whilst protecting the environment. The New Approach to Traffic Appraisal (NATA) in principle offers a way of avoiding this problem in future.

Integrated thinking should also be applied to the tensions that can exist between environmental objectives:

A more flexible approach could also help to better integrate conflicting aims. For example, it is arguable that Green Belt policy to protect countryside and prevent urban sprawl has contributed to longer commuting patterns, with adverse environmental impacts.An alternative approach would recognise that not all Green Belt areas are of high environmental standards and, maybe at the margins, some development could be offset by additions elsewhere of previously developed land returned to greenfield status (as is currently being proposed in some draft RPG). Of course there will be some imperatives against development; any land which has unique status for example, cannot be traded off but risk assessment is a useful tool in helping to determine imperatives.

(c)   Fundamentally where regulation is used, it should be focused on outcomes rather than prescribing the means by which those outcomes are reached. In achieving pollution control it is reasonable to aim for a particular outcome, such as particular air quality standards, but at the same time leaving open the choice of action, methods and design.

(e)   The benefits of plan, monitor and manage over predict and provide have not yet clearly established for all forms of development. Environmental considerations can be taken into account in carrying out 'predict and provide' so the process and the environment are not neccessarily mutually exclusive. For waste it is an essential part of forecasting arisings and provide facility to manage this in the plans.

The same is true for minerals. In order to ensure a steady and uninterrupted supply of raw material, forecasting and therefore subsequent provision for development is imperative. It is well known that the forecasting method in the current MPG6 has not proved to be the most accurate. However, in order to ensure non-sterilisation of mineral reserves and therefore to prevent their non-utilisation some type of forecasting method and provision must be made in national and local planning guidance.

In transport, the scaling down of the strategic road programme during the 2nd half of the 1990s is frequently highlighted by Government and commentators as marking the end of a prior policy of predict and provide in road transport. In fact, predict and provide never truly characterised the road programme because- even with the major programme agreed at the end of the 1980s (Roads to Prosperity) the planned increase in road capacity would never have satisfied all anticipated increase in demand for movement by road. The difference with current policy is that the failure to meet all future demand through physical increases in capacity has been explicitly acknowledged and attempts are being made to address what needs to be done to prevent gridlock (eg Highways Agency as manager of the trunk road network). The frustration of business however, is that we are very much in a "plan" phase (eg with many former trunk road schemes being reviewed under Multi Modal Studies) rather than actually implementing the measures needed to reduce the harmful effects (economically and environmentally) of growing congestion.

(f)   Strategic environmental assessment could address this concern, however there is also the issue of the sufficiency of Local Government resources.

(g)   Government has transferred more responsibility to regions to prepare Regional Planning Guidance before endorsement by the Secretary of State but does not appear to have provided them with increased means to match this change. Local authorities, who make up planning bodies, are expected to find resources for preparing RPG from their current budgets. In the round of RPGs yet to be carried out, the often poor quality of draft documents and outstanding studies (eg employment land studies, studies into transport corridors) highlight the challenge faced by RPBs. The challenge is strengthened by the increasingly complex context with which RPG now have to be prepared, alongside regional transport strategies, regional economic strategies, regional sustainability frameworks, etc.

It is concerning that agencies involved with environmental planning often fail to focus on core issues and in many cases duplicate work. The lines of responsibility need to be clearly marked to reduce this problem. At the same time a lack of experienced personnel who can think holistically over the whole range of environmental legislation is also a problem. The system is hindered by the difficulty in obtaining relevant data to aid decision-making and planning issues can often fall between expert groups. One example of this is the Environment Agency. As a statutory organisation that needs to be consulted on relevant issues e.g. hydrology, the EA has often held up planning decisions. This is more often than not due to the lack of expertise and resources available within the organisation. The high staff turnover rate also ensures that a high level of inconsistency throughout the consultation process holds up decisions on proposed working practices and development, thereby further delaying any planning decisions. The CBI report Shaping Up reviewed the performance of the Environment Agency 3 years after its creation and highlighted a number of these problems.

(h)   There is a link between the land use planning system and policies to limit the extent of damage from climate change. For example, RPG can identify areas most at risk from change such as coastal/riparian areas liable to increased flooding (as in Yorkshire and Humber) , the possibility of less water to serve housing provision in the south of England, and propose planning policies accordingly. RPG can also help to promote more sustainable forms of energy generation and transport us.

However, given that there is still some scientific uncertainty about the precise causes and impacts of climate change, there is a danger that policies will be pursued which generate little environmental benefit but at significant economic cost. A further risk is that the UK - which has a good record on climate change - will commit itself to tough targets and policies in advance of similar commitments from other countries. The concern of business is that this may involve serious cost yet achieve little re climate change, given that the UK is responsible for less than 3% of the global GHG emissions.

The long term nature of climate change demands a long term approach which secures the most cost effective responses to this challenge. One of our concerns is that the draft UK climate change programme is not obviously focused on the longer term issues (a copy of our response is attached).

Boundaries
(2a)   Developments in the EU such as the recently agreed Water Framework Directive mean that such legislation conforms to the natural geographic areas, such as river catchments, enabling appropriate strategic approaches to management. Planning needs also needs to take account of natural boundaries (as opposed to politically constructed ones) to enable the best strategic decisions to be made in sensitive areas.

(c)   Land use planning system should promote policies which help to achieve goals in other areas but the limits of this approach need to be acknowledged and the temptation to look to the planning system to do it all should be avoided. Transport Planning which promotes co-location of facilities, economic development, housing etc can help reduce distances travelled for some journey purposes (though not necessarily the need to travel per se). But it can take years for changes in planning policies to take effect and the range of other, non-land use planning policies which will also have an effect, such as pricing measures, can also be effective.

Similarly, land use planning can help promote the use of renewable energy sources but other issues such as the treatment of renewables in the New Electricity Trading Arrangements are just as important.

(d)   GIS allows large areas of the environment to be visualised, and changes monitored and understood. Consequently a strategic perspective can emerge in the development of planning regimes. Reliable and up to date information is essential to this process. Ccurrent problems include the fact that much information is held separately by different organisations in different and incompatible formats, although some attempts are being made to solve this. There needs to be strong co-operation between agencies to ensure the widest possible awareness of information.

Integration or Co-ordination
(a)   There are a number of overlaps in agencies competencies, mentioned earlier in the response, which can introduce conflicts into the system.

Currently a number of regulatory regimes are being updated or introduced, such as Pollution Prevention and Control, new waste provisions and energy measures. Although developing in parallel there are a number of cross-cutting issues which are not being sufficiently addressed to the detriment of the efficacy and efficiency of these regimes. By not clearly defining the relationships of regimes in the regulations, it is left to unclear and non-legally binding 'guidance' to give an idea of how things will work in practice. This leaves a lot of scope for individual interpretation of how often sensitive issues will be handled.

Links have been made between legislation with different objectives and purpose. For example to qualify for a negotiated agreement on the Climate Change Levy it is necessary for a business to have a site or sites covered by the PPC regime. Energy intensive users are not necessarily potentially highly polluting, and therefore do not always come under PPC. The 'linking' of two different regimes with differing objectives has meant that there has been a lot of confusion, not only over who should be eligible for agreements, but whether such agreements count as the energy efficiency requirements under PPC. It has been left to Environment Agency and SEPA guidance to make this clear, which it fails to do.

(d)   It should be possible to speed up land use planning process while still achieving effective environmental protection. In the case of large, strategic transport projects, the process could be improved by better timing the debate about need for a scheme in the process (which could include discussion about the strategic environmental impact as well as strategic economic importance). The process in the past has been characterised by discussion of need at public inquiry which is not necessarily best placed to do that.

(f)   Integration in terms of process has begun but delivery remains to be seen. Regions have been preparing regional transport strategies as well as RPG and attempts have been made to ensure consistency between the two. However, the transport strategies are often lacking in commitment to specific projects (the South East being an example) with decisions being deferred to the outcomes of studies either in progress or yet to begin. Often there is a poor or only implicit linkage between the development proposals in RPG and the RTS, for example, the development corridors in draft RPG for Yorkshire and the Humber, which are currently at public examination.

(g)   CBI believes that there are opportunities for a range of instruments in environmental policy. The current DETR consultation on using economic instruments in water abstraction licensing shows that in some cases it is more efficient to use economic instruments rather than regulation. In this case the environmental objective of managing water resources might be better achieved, as by increasing charges would have a very small effect on behaviour, as abstraction costs are a small percentage of those overall.

Tax incentives and education are other ways of influencing behaviour, but incentives should be applied in an open and transparent manner. Taxes in particular should be designed with care to ensure that the result that you get is really the one you intended. A copy of the CBI discussion document 'Coming Clean' which explores the potential for using market instruments is attached.

The Landfill Tax is an example of economic instrument where the environmental benefits are there to be seen, namely through the Landfill Tax Credits Scheme. The level of waste going to landfill has reduced whilst the recycling figures have risen.

The recently announced Aggregates Levy however, does not seem to indicate that any environmental benefit will be derived from its introduction. The introduction of this Levy will seriously damage one of Britain's primary industries. The levels of tax proposed will, undoubtedly, have serious implications for the industry and trade in value added products.

Despite the exemption on recycled aggregates this is unlikely to have any significant effects on the increase of recycled aggregate use, this is partly due to the fact that there are currently no guarantees on their integrity during construction use, something which the Government has yet to provide.

(i)   Sustainability as a concept is still evolving and although the desire to improve the environment, society and economic goals is a laudable one the questions of how this can be achieved are still to be answered. Adopting sustainability as a focus of policy requires a better understanding of what it might mean in practice, particularly ensuring it does not become an 'anti-development' mindset, but a tool for integrated thinking.

Subsidiarity and democracy
(b)   Decision-making relating to the environment is often undertaken with a large degree of uncertainty. This is gradually being recognised in the policy process, along with the consequently subjective nature of people's responses. The importance of as much good quality information as possible can not therefore be underestimated and a sound analytical process, risk assessment being a good example, should be carried out.

If you have any queries, or wish to discuss this further please do not hesitate to contact me.

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