Road pricing for EVs - EVA England is not happy (see below). I wonder how committed Government is on this - it's been trailed as it's been included in the long list of Budget policies given to the OBR this week for them to assess. (1/) www.evaengland.org.uk/2025/11/06/l...

Planning & Infrastructure Bill has its last Lords day on Monday with Third Reading (but will do more with ping-pong with the Commons later). Just two amendments - one tidying one and this one, to avoid a defeat on an amendment tabled by Baroness Parminter. Govt has moved a lot to reassure critics.

As you would completely expect, people support a tax when someone else is paying it. So where EV ownership is lowest (Wales), least opposition to EV road pricing. Where highest (London), opposition is strongest.

..from community energy to housing projects, green spaces and local initiatives that bring people together. With the right support, these efforts can strengthen our health, wellbeing and democracy. Sign up to show your support! charterfordemocracy.org/about

Communities are facing big challenges; the climate crisis, poor housing, disconnection and division. Too often, decisions are made far away in Whitehall, leaving local voices unheard. Our Community Charter recognises that you are already creating solutions..

Also clear that road pricing will be overwhelmingly a revenue focused policy - any transport objectives are very much subsidiary to making money.

UK governments always claim that there is absolutely no-one doing any work on road pricing - but it does sound like their plans for EV road pricing are surprisingly well advanced... www.ft.com/content/9f90...

📗 New report by @britishecologicalsociety.org & @nationaltrust.org.uk Time to rethink nature conservation? Ecologists call for an ecosystem approach to halt UK wildlife decline and protect the vital services nature provides us💚 👉 Read here: www.britishecologicalsociety.org/time-to-reth...

Latest car sales figures from @newautomotive.org show EVs continuing to become mainstream. And it's the "legacy" car makers that are seeing growth in EV sales. BYD making in-roads but despite EU having anti-China EV tariffs and UK not, Chinese car makers are not (yet) sweeping all before them.

New Oxford-Cambridge national forest announced with forest towns kind of the C21 version of C20 garden cities www.gov.uk/government/n...

Railways Bill looks like it's going to be pretty positive. From a London perspective, hopefully it will recognise value of TfL run services (eg not just prioritising GBR services over TfL where they share same track & being open to further devolution to TfL) www.gov.uk/government/n...

Railways Bill looks like it's going to be pretty positive. From a London perspective, hopefully it will recognise value of TfL run services (eg not just prioritising GBR services over TfL where they share same track & being open to further devolution to TfL) www.gov.uk/government/n...

“We’ve had ample previous experience showing how kneejerk cuts to investment in warmer homes result in customers paying billions of pounds more on their energy bills, while damaging supply chains & businesses with knock on impacts to investment & job losses" - @dharavyas.bsky.social. Precisely.

Zack Polanski at Green Alliance conference today. I think this is the first ever environment sector event I've been to where a Green party politician has given a keynote speech. Very good speech and very well delivered too.

No government defeats in the Lords last night in the final night of report stage for the Planning & Infrastructure Bill. Even swift bricks didn't manage to get over the line (vote below). Next is Lords Third Reading on 10 November

In percentage terms, this is a slow down rather than a surge. In July 2024, the annual growth rate in charge points was 47%. In the latest monthly figures, annual growth rate is down to 23%.

The latest Index of Deprivation out today. Three of the four least deprived wards in England are in Harpenden, Herts, the town where I went to school. About the most Conservative-voting place you could imagine back then but now is Lib Dem voting in a sign of the changing political demographics.

This is the most important amendment to the planning bill! The Gov have agreed to work with Kate Parminter to bring forward her amendment to apply the Mitigation Hierarchy to EDPs. A huge win for the environment & a greener future. Her expert knowledge & diplomacy delivering real nature protection 💚

"Do what we want or we'll tell on you to the OBR" is a new one for lobbying. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Big defeat in the Lords on the Government's Planning & Infrastructure Bill - restricting the proposed new Environmental Delivery Plans to just four issues. 260 - 141. Amendment here: bills.parliament.uk/bills/3946/s...

Not the most ambitious of approaches on rail and decarbonisation in the carbon budget delivery plan (columns show savings in carbon budgets to mid-2030s)

This afternoon's quandary - read the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan or listen to peers debating the Planning and Infrastructure Bill www.gov.uk/government/p... or www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/...

Written statement on the carbon budget delivery and growth plan, with links to all the documents everyone's been waiting for. questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...

Sounds like Conservative front-bench won't support the amendment, though are pushing their own amendment on "Duty to have regard to the UK’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for 2030 in relation to planning" (but they won't push their own to a vote. Both apparently are "irrelevant")

First amendment before the Lords today on the Planning & Infrastructure Bill. Hope to see Lords vote for this duty given vital role of planning system in tackling and adapting to climate change.

Written statement for tomorrow: Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero 3.Government’s Plan for meeting Carbon Budgets 4-6 One thing to compare with the previous carbon budget delivery plan is the slippage in start dates for many policies beyond electricity generation.

Number of homes for social rent falls by 4,100 over the past year - councils still losing more council homes through right to buy than they build. New Regulator of Social Housing figures: www.gov.uk/government/n...

The Better Bus Services Bill is now law. Here's what our Head of Policy and Campaigns @silviyabarrett.bsky.social had to say on this hugely important step for the country's most used form of public transport.

Three government defeats in the Lords yesterday on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill 1. Baroness Coffey amendment to protect assets of community value from demolition under permitted development rules votes.parliament.uk/votes/lords/...

All policies now need to have their own hats (from yesterday's Lords debate on planning bill)

Off to Rich Mix to see Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan. Seems like an appropriate evening out.

The @CommonsEAC report also pours cold water on the government’s unproven assertion that airport expansion will be a catalytic driver of wider economic growth. Read our full statement on the report below 👀👇2/2 www.aef.org.uk/2025/10/24/n...

🚨 After months of taking evidence from campaigners, industry reps, and the Aviation Minister, the @CommonsEAC new report send a strong message to Government: airport expansion threatens the UK’s net zero goals 1/2 publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

Environmental Audit Committee report on airport expansion - stops short of really putting the boot in but pretty critical of the gaps in Government policy to manage its impact on climate change committees.parliament.uk/committee/62...

Measures to increase housing in London. Developers have wanted measures from central government too but these are all things that the Mayor will do (or be enabled to do). Though there is extra cash for the Mayor. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Important story on the horrors of #woodburning by my excellent colleague @dpcarrington.bsky.social a must-read and must-follow: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Currently enjoying 1970s equivalent to BBC4 - JK Galbraith on the history of economic ideas. 1890s gilded age (focus of this episode) seem much closer to our own age than the 1970s he describes at the end www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Wrote about my misgivings on the clean power by 2030 target before the election - but then it was the worry that it would squeeze out other decarbonisation policies. Now could have weaker policies outside energy & retreat from clean power target too www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

From today's ministerial statement on Heathrow expansion - shows how difficult it will be to deliver, whatever the talk of rushing through the aviation national policy statement. Trying to deliver on all of these conflicting aims is difficult.

The UK's revised carbon budget delivery plan is out next week. One late change will have to be on maritime decarbonisation, where the US blowing up an international agreement means the UK can no longer rely on this approach. (1/3)

Nostalgia time for policy geeks - the Red Tape Challenge is back! www.gov.uk/government/c...

All seems quite sensible - but why always the need for a combative spin about beating up the regulators and evironmental protections? (from www.gov.uk/government/n...)

Bit like the £20bn "black hole" ministers discovered after the election, the sudden discovery (or to publicly acknowledge) that Brexit is bad for us, does take the public for fools. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Top punning from Baroness Coffey: “In opposition, Labour were swift to criticise. Now, in government, they need to swallow their pride and vote with us to save our swifts.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"I just want a bus service"

Quoting just the Home Builders Federation and Paul Cheshire seems just a little bit of a partial view on planning, land use and the Government's housing ambitions. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Alongside @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social, @nationaltrust.org.uk & @wclnews.bsky.social, we’ve responded to @georgemonbiot.bsky.social 's piece on the Planning Bill. He’s right: it’s a grave threat to nature. But we’ve never been silent. We’ve challenged it at every turn & we won’t stop now.

This is good news but this line is just odd: "Move is latest part of government’s Plan for Change". Is there some secret chapter of the Dec 2024 Plan for Change that, Nostradamus-like, predicts every detail of Government actions for years to come? www.gov.uk/government/n...

Public Accounts Committee has published its report/commentary from the NAO inquiry on developer contributions. "Without a functioning pipeline of highly-skilled planning professionals, councils will continue to be out manoeuvred in any negotiation with developers in affordable homes negotiations."

WE NEED TO BE MORE FRENCH. This is the theme of our new paper on cutting bills through energy saving measures, published today and highlighted in The Times. /1 www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...