Environmental think tank and charity Green Alliance (1) has been granted permission to intervene in a legal appeal relating to housing energy efficiency standards (2) which will set a precedent in how the government takes account of environmental issues in its policies in future (3).

Green Alliance senior fellow Ruth Chambers said:

“How the Court of Appeal rules in a case on applying energy efficiency standards could have implications for how the government factors in environmental issues to policies in the future. We have been involved at all stages of the development and implementation of the duty to apply environmental principles in policymaking, so we’re grateful for the opportunity to assist the court’s understanding of the duty through making written submissions. We hope this will mean it’s applied properly and consistently to protect the environment.”

The independent statutory oversight body, the Office for Environmental Protection, has also been granted permission to intervene in this appeal. The applications for intervention were allowed because they will “materially assist” the court in deciding the appeal.

The Court of Appeal will consider both grounds of appeal (4), including the one relating to environmental principles.

After Brexit, the UK government set up a new national environmental governance system in England to replace EU processes and oversight. This includes a duty on UK government ministers to apply environmental principles when they develop, revise or repeal policies.

This was meant to ensure that environmental matters are considered up front in government policy making: and with substance, rigour and an open mind.

This case is the first serious examination by the judiciary of this important environmental duty and will set an important precedent. Through its intervention, Green Alliance aims to provide evidence and insight from its own involvement in how the duty was conceived, formulated and implemented, to assist the Court of Appeal’s consideration.

Green Alliance has been monitoring the application of the environmental principles duty and recently published a briefing which highlighted where it was working well and where improvements were needed (5).

Notes to editors:

1. Green Alliance is an independent think tank and charity focused on ambitious leadership for the environment. It was founded in 1979.
2. Case reference CA-2024-001754: R (on the application of Rights Community Action Ltd) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Respondent).
3. The duty on government ministers to have due regard to the Environmental Principles Policy Statement when making policy is set out in section 19 of the Environment Act 2021.
4. Case Tracker for Civil Appeals
5. See the Green Alliance briefing: one year on – is the environmental principles duty working?