"Defra needs strength and simplicity in reforming regulators" - Wildlife and Countryside Link responds to the Corry Review

Responding to the release of Dan Corry's review of the Defra regulatory landscape, Richard Benwell CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said:

"For too long, environmental regulators have been too poor and too weak to enforce the law. Their environmental duties have been too soft and vague to drive environmental recovery. In any reform, Defra must find strength with simplicity: all regulators and regulation must contribute to the urgent action needed to halt environmental decline by 2030.

The Government's planning reforms fall far short of the win-win approach Ministers want and Corry seems to support. The risk to nature in new planning laws is high, with few of the safeguards needed to ensure environmental law isn't weakened. The promised benefits are wafer thin and don't yet justify the case for reform. We hope Parliament will recognise that natural infrastructure is the bedrock of the economy, and regulatory reform must deliver a simpler, stronger focus on environmental recovery."

ENDS