English Heritage to be split
The Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) carried out a review of Natural England and the Environment Agency, with a view to possibly merging them.
It concluded that they should remain separate bodies, but that there were opportunities for reforming the delivery of services, including planning.
Both bodies are statutory consultees for planning applications and advise local authorities on environmental and flood risk aspects of proposed projects.
The government wants a "seamless planning advice service provided to developers on environmental issues", according to the review. Advice should be provided early in the planning process and be more consistent nationally, it said.
However, the review is not clear about whether a full merger of the two advisors' planning departments is required.
The bodies should focus on providing advice on projects that are likely to have the greatest impact on their priority objectives. They should continue to develop set advice for low-risk cases and input to local plans to limit the number of cases where they need to provide bespoke responses, the review said.
Meanwhile, English Heritage will become a charity from 2015. It will focus on managing publicly owned and funded tourist attractions while its listing and planning functions will transfer to a new body, the National Heritage Protection Service.
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