Regulatory Underfunding and the Drive for Net Zero

Funding to the regulatory system that supports contaminated land assessment and remediation has been reducing over recent years. This has led to decreased involvement of both dedicated local contaminated land officers and the Environment Agency in many brownfield and contaminated land development projects.

Efforts have been made within the sector to supplement this reducing involvement through self-governance, e.g. DoWCoP. However, this has been hampered by uncertainty and regulatory concerns about applying this guidance, the permitting regime, and possible mis-use by certain companies.

This Brownfield & Regeneration Network panel discussion, in partnership with Soilfix, will explore these issues, and the extent to which an underfunded, under-resourced regulatory system is presenting a barrier to brownfield development through significant delays, increased costs and additional carbon outputs on remediation projects and endeavour to find a possible way forward.

Chair:

George Evans, Managing Director, Soilfix

Panellists:

Steve Edgar, Managing Director, VertaseFLI

Nicholas Invernizzi, Head of Remediation, Berkeley Group

Richard Moakes, Managing Consultant, Ramboll