Was it lawful for the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the respondent here, to reform the planning legislation in England by making statutory instruments to adjust ‘permitted development’ rights and to remove certain changes of use from the scope of development control, without undertaking a strategic environmental assessment under Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (‘the SEA Directive’) and the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004 (‘the SEA regulations’)? That is the basic question in this case. The answer to it, in my view, is that the Secretary of State did not act unlawfully.
Sir Keith Lindblom,
(Senior President of Tribunals),
Lord Justice Coulson,
And,
Lord Justice Birss
[2021] EWCA Civ 1954
Bailii
England and Wales
Planning, Environment
Updated: 07 January 2022; Ref: scu.670639
