Boris Johnson’s Infrastructure Revolution Faces Environmental Lawsuit

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proposal to overhaul the country’s planning system as a way to boost growth during the pandemic faces a challenge from activists who say the regulations break environmental and equality laws.

A public interest group said at a court hearing Wednesday that the program -- part of Johnson’s plan for an “infrastructure revolution” -- should be subject to a full environmental review. The regulations would make it easier for unused structures to be demolished and replaced with apartment buildings.

Britain’s broader proposal for a planning overhaul have faced a backlash, with critics saying the rules don’t fulfill the need for affordable housing and that buildings are being shoddily converted into flats. There are also complaints the revamp was rushed through amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The new regulations remove “local democratic control, bypass local planning policies, prevent any consideration of sustainable locations, and rule out any consideration of climate change mitigation and human health,” lawyers for Rights: Community: Action said in court documents prepared for the London hearing.

Although the judicial review is challenging only part of the government’s plans to reform the system, it could hurt the wider plans, as Johnson would be forced to make amendments to the new regulations.

‘Build, Build, Build’

These are the biggest changes in the planning system in decades and echo Johnson’s call for the country to “Build Build Build” to kick-start the economy. Home values have been boosted in recent years by government programs that stimulate demand rather than supply, making them too costly for local people in many areas.

Activists say the impact on the quality of development will be “profound” and the new rules “fundamentally change the nature of the planning system.” The rules will undermine any existing obligations local authorities have on affordable homes and public health, including for the homeless in the U.K.’s most deprived areas, they said.

“These measures do nothing to address the pandemic -- indeed they could merely result in poor quality housing that will have additional negative impacts on public health,” Naomi Luhde-Thompson, head of RCA, said in an email. “They are permanent, and a consultation on their impact on the most vulnerable in our society and the environment should have been undertaken.”

The government argues the trio of instruments introduced over the summer were urgently needed in the wake of the pandemic to spur economic activity. The regulations also apply to retail properties, with the number of vacant stores rocketing amid the lockdown.

“Although these planning reforms had been considered prior to the pandemic, the government made the decision that urgent action was needed to introduce these reforms in response to the unprecedented economic emergency,” the government said in court documents.

The U.K.’s housing department and the RCA didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

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