Environmental litigation roundtable with Richard Buxton
06 May 2026
Members of our planning and environment team had a great time last week joining Richard Buxton Solicitors for a roundtable on what’s new and what’s coming up in the world of environmental litigation. Lots to digest, including:
- Procedural changes to judicial review. What changed with Part 1 of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and the CPR changes in October 2025? What new rules and restrictions on planning judicial reviews do Claimant solicitors need to be aware of?
- Environmental Outcome Reports. The Government is proposing a wholesale shake-up of the regime for environmental assessment of plans and projects in 2027. Will Environmental Outcome Reports be a bold departure from the current system or will they end up looking a lot like the Environmental Impact Assessments they are set to replace?
- Habitats Regulations changes. It’s been a big year for the Habitats Regulations. How are the reforms in Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 shaping up and can we expect to see the UK system move further away from a mitigation-based model of nature protection towards a compensation-based model?
- Protected Landscapes Duties. Several cases in 2025 clarified how new statutory duties around protected landscapes should be applied. The Government has promised that NSIP promoters will no longer have to pay financial compensation to discharge the duties, but what steps will they be expected to take instead?
- New causes of action on climate change. Recent years have seen a range of climate cases around the world being brought as actions in public and private nuisance, human rights-based challenges, greenwashing claims, and shareholder actions. Yet in the UK, climate litigation remains primarily a matter of judicial review. We considered why a wider range of climate cases had not found their way into the UK courts.
Cornerstone members attending including Harriet Townsend KC, Jack Parker, Lois Lane, Hannah Taylor and Clare Parry.
