Environment
These regulations aim to promote sustainable development and protect the environment.
You can find all 278 regulations that relate to environment here [opens in new window].
For ease of commenting we have broken these regulations into the following seven areas:
You need to stop the careless use of pesticides, I find it incredible how much toxin and pollutants are being sold cheaply in Pound Shops to ignorant people who then throw it around their former gardens which they have turned into driveways. As for the Liberal Democrats proposal to tax gardens, what ridiculous nonesense, only recently the Government recognised the importance of the ecosystem to the economy, instead of targeting garden owners for tax, you should be subsidising them, especially in large cities to maintain them, and prevent concreting of gardens for idiots to park their cars.Comment Tags: Ban pesticides from Pound Shops
I agree with Stephen Torpe on restricted pesticide selling and value of gardens and green spaces for food production. I don’t know where you got the idea that Lib Dems would tax gardens – the Land Value Tax would exempt all green uses of taxable land. I think you need to change your daily reading material.
Try the Lib Dem Policies on their website – much more accurate than daily papers owned by negative people.Comment Tags: Facts, Land Value Tax, pesticides
The current UK environmental legislation is essential to try to protect a hugely valuable resource and should not be considered to be ‘red tape’. To remove it for perceived ‘economic gain’ would be incredibly short-sighted and only lead to greater costs in the future. It has taken many years to create and implement the legislation we have and it is imperative to maintain and strengthen it. There is a large body of environmental professionals who work with and advise successfully on it. It is also essential that funding for the Regulatory Agencies is maintained.
The right to roam freely should always be enshrined in law. Responsible and keen walkers appreciate our countryside and access should not be curtailed by those who own the land, to do so would be to than a return to a bygone age that has no place in a modern forward thinking democracy.Comment Tags: right to roam
The Climate Change Act of 2008 will only make the UK less competitive on the global market by setting mandatory reductions in C02. We already have a significantly reduced industrial output that is making it hard for the poor to find work. We need to start working for the people and not college kids and quangos. I think this board so far is full of people who aren’t affected by the lack of employment that these sorts of regulations create. We need to slash regulation and tax in order to make the UK competitive with growing economies like India, China and the former east blocks.
Simplify the ‘red tape’ by making it clear that major fossil fuel reductions, natural wildlife habitats, recreational green space and food growing land are our priorities for the economy and society of the future. Reverse the perverse tax incentives for developers to build on previously undeveloped land to ensure that homes and other developments take up the vast wasted space in existing buildings and settlements so that nearly everyone can live, work and meet their day-to-day needs within walking distance or at least via plentiful public tgransport.Comment Tags: developers, fossil fuels, green space
I agree with howards post. This isn’t red tape but essential legislation and I am concerned that the govt can’t even tell the difference. Environmental protection should be increased, not watered down.
Having more-expensive tarriffs for the first set ammount of energy used means that cost per unit decreases the more one uses. This is daft! Utilities must price energy so that domestic users pay less per unit the less energy they use.Comment Tags: energy pricing
The current legislation to protect Biodiversity, landscape, habitats and wildlife sites is nowhere near robust enough. In order to protect what we have left the legislation needs to be toughened up not downgraded. So yes it needs to be changed but with tighter regulations that actually afford these areas unconditional protection.
I have read many of the other comments – shame there are so few as there should be millions of people clamouring for tighter regulation and proper enforcement to protect the environment, air quality and health. What is this government thinking of? Only increasing the profit of industry, those who support them. They seemingly wish to de-regulate everything and have a chaotic free-for-all for their rich business friends to abuse our land. Take for example the plan to deregulate planning and make it easier to build without control. Who would benefit from this? The same people who are in government? I would like to know who exactly was at the back of this “red tape challenge”? Whose bright idea was it? Then we would know what vested interest was driving this insane agenda!Comment Tags: insane, irresponsible, vested interest
i have read many of the other comments and associate myself with those that say existing environmental legislation is vital to protect our environment. Watering it down will leave it open to business to do what it always has done, encroach on and spoil it in the pursuit of profit. In particular, the change in the planning regulations is a disgraceful attempt to favour business to the detriment of the community. There may be a housing crisis, but there are other ways of solving it– look at the immense amount o brownfield and development land not being built on as a result of the economic downturn. I do not beleve this government deserves to be called green.Comment Tags: environment/planning
“red tape”. Regulations are not “red tape”. The phrase is a give away. Deregulation is an article of faith to some. Regulations are there to protect us from “freemarket” chaos. Please leave us our regulations.
When you look around in the UK now it is clear that this so-called ‘red tape’ needs to be exteneded not cut back on. As a commuting cyclist breathing poisonous fumes for an hour a day I would welcome more red tape controlling exhaust gases in London, for example.
Took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be VERY helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It’s always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! Im sure you had fun writing this article.
Environmental laws have accumulated over the years for a very good reason – they are necessary. To consider their wholesale scrapping (what else is a ‘bonfire of red tape’?) is a dereliction of government responsibility. This government isn’t ‘Green’, it’s yellow – it dare not discuss openly what in particular it wants to remove protection from. The laws should be left exactly as they are until they can be debated individually and properly.Comment Tags: irresponsible government
It has taken many years to create a body of legislation that protects the environment. It would be short sighted and destructive for it to be dismantled.
Laws to protect the environment are essential legislation, not “red tape”, and should be preserved and strengthened. It has taken a long time to achieve what has been achieved (for example the recent Marine Bill), often in the face of narrow self-interest. We need government to take a wider and longer term view that recognises that some things are too important and precious to be left to market forces, short-term gain or individual whim to decide their fate. The environment is one of these precious things.Comment Tags: keep protecting the environment
It is essential to maintain in place the environmental controls that exist otherwise we would regress to situations that prevailed during the the most exploitatative times of the industrial revolution, where rampant capitalism ruined rivers and atmospheres with impunity. Technologies to further the strengthening of controls should be fostered by means of a properly funded and resourced ‘green investment bank’ with the aim of making this country a world leader with regard to environmental technologies and the implementation of controls. It should be ensured, of course, that the relevant enforcement agencies are properly resourced.Comment Tags: strengthen controls
Environment legislation was enacted for good reasons. If it is relaxed or diluted society as a whole will suffer.
Without regulatory and legal restraints, business would do as it chooses, at our expense. We need this environmental protection, strengthen, don’r weaken it.Comment Tags: Protect the environment
Environmental laws and regulations should be retained, strengthened and vigorously applied, not scrapped because greedy businesses and developers want to make money at the expense of the environment and ordinary people. We need new laws to protect fish stocks, reduce waste and promote recycling, conserve wildlife, and reduce noise pollution.