Michael Donnelly

The Environment Agency (EA) has been told to prioritise protecting public water supplies over “environmental rules” in four areas that were placed in ‘severe drought’ status last week.

The government has granted consent for production to begin at the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, arguing the move is compatible with net zero, and it has announced the creation of a new “Energy Wealth Fund” that will use tax revenues from North Sea oil and gas to invest in renewables.

A £3.7bn plan to remove all treated and untreated wastewater inputs into lake Windermere in Cumbria could be delivered within ten years, a feasibility study has concluded.

The government’s taskforce on the implications of climate change and nature loss on national security has met for the first time, with the body due to make recommendations to the government next year.

Landowners should be allowed a “toolbox” of land management techniques – including controlled burning – to prevent wildfires, and the government should review regulations that are intended to protect peatland from the controversial practice, MPs have said.

The shadow housing minister has criticised imminent changes to the planning fees regime that would allow planning authorities to raise an estimated £144 million extra each year from applicants, describing the policy as “yet another straw to the camel’s already broken back”.

A council has said it is “taking legal advice” after it was directed by the planning minister to proceed with a regulation 19 consultation on its draft local plan, and to submit the document for examination by the end of March next year.

A Labour MP has urged the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) to “intervene” before ministers decide whether to approve England’s first Environmental Delivery Plan (EDP), with the MP warning that the plan is currently “in breach” of requirements set out in the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025.

The first Environmental Delivery Plan (EDP) does not provide sufficient evidence that environmental improvements will be realised, risking a “lowering of environmental protection”, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has said.

Nature loss could put 20.6 million UK jobs – 62% of total domestic jobs – “at risk”, according to research.