Natural England’s Proposal: New Homes to Require Ulez or LTN-Style Schemes

In 2021, Natural England made a suggestion to prohibit residents of a new care home in Fareham, Hants, from owning cars as a “precautionary approach” to reduce disruption in the New Forest. These recommendations were outlined in documents obtained by The Telegraph, which reveal that consultants hired by Natural England were exploring ways to mitigate emissions from traffic and vehicles associated with new development projects.

The consultants, a firm known as Ricardo Energy, who had a £40,000 contract with Natural England, mentioned various potential mitigation schemes in their emails, such as low emission zones (LEZs) or clean air zones (CAZs). They proposed that these zones could be utilized not only to address the effects of traffic emissions on human health, but also to mitigate impacts on ecological sites.

In correspondence with The Telegraph, the firm stated, “Natural England is also interested in learning more about the potential use of ‘soft measures’ to address air quality impacts from traffic emissions.” They further defined soft measures as measures that could include improvements to local public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure, low traffic neighborhoods, 15-minute neighborhoods, provision of electric charging points, restriction of car parking in new developments, and route management strategies for HGVs, among others.

Natural England, whose chairperson is Tony Juniper, the former head of Friends of the Earth, has requested evidence showcasing the effectiveness of such schemes in reducing overall vehicle emissions. Mr. Juniper emphasized the importance of mitigating pollution sources in order to fulfill the government’s legal commitment to halt and reverse the decline in nature and improve environmental quality, as demanded by the public.