September 3rd, 2026
ELF responds to consultation on judicial review reforms
The Environmental Law Foundation has responded to the Government’s consultation on proposals to extend recent judicial review reforms beyond Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects and into the wider planning system.
The proposals could make it harder and more expensive for communities to challenge unlawful planning decisions affecting the places where they live. They include removing the paper permission stage for some judicial reviews, restricting routes of appeal and introducing tighter court timetables. For communities already facing significant financial and practical barriers to accessing environmental justice, these changes risk further tipping the balance away from ordinary people seeking to hold public authorities to account.
Judicial review is an important safeguard in our legal system. It allows people and communities to ask the courts to examine whether decisions made by government and other public authorities are lawful. In environmental and planning cases, it can provide a vital means for communities to challenge decisions that could have profound and lasting consequences for their homes and local environment.
ELF is concerned that the Government has not demonstrated that judicial review is a significant cause of delays in the wider planning system. The recent reforms for nationally significant infrastructure have not yet been fully implemented or properly assessed, yet the Government is already considering extending similar restrictions to a much wider range of developments, potentially including major infrastructure, energy projects and significant housing developments.
There is also an important distinction between nationally significant infrastructure and developments that may be significant primarily at a local level. Measures originally justified by the particular national importance of major infrastructure projects should not simply be extended to developments affecting individual communities. Doing so risks reducing the ability of local people to challenge decisions with profound consequences for their homes, local environment and nature.
At a time of climate change, pollution and nature loss, ensuring that the environmental impacts of development are properly considered — and that unlawful decisions can be challenged — remains essential. Efforts to speed up development should not weaken the ability of communities to hold decision-makers to account.
ELF is therefore calling on the Government not to further restrict access to judicial review without clear evidence that reform is necessary and a proper assessment of the consequences for communities and access to environmental justice.