Search: Environment

Pros and cons of green leases

Landlords have the option of negotiating a 'green lease' with tenants. Property lawyer, Shona Dunning, explores how this could make your property more marketable and reduce running costs.

Environment issues on the table

B P Collins has an outstanding reputation and strong client base in the waste management and environmental sectors. Recently, it brought together top executives from clients including Grundon Waste Management, Summerleaze and Biffa Group to discuss what it means to "go green" in the Thames Valley.

Businesses rewarded for ‘going green’

A new Renewable Heat Incentive ('RHI') scheme, providing for payments to reward businesses for using renewable heating technology, took effect from 30 September 2011. The RHI scheme provides for regular payments to owners (not tenants) of premises where water or space is heated using renewable heating technologies. The payments are made for 20 years, and increase or reduce annually in...

Property update: Homes and businesses targeted in energy efficiency push

Energy efficiency in homes and businesses is to be targeted more closely under plans outlined in the Government's forthcoming Energy Bill. From April 2016, landlords will have to comply by law with any "reasonable" request from a tenant to make the property they live in more energy efficient and, from April 2018, it will be unlawful to rent out a...

Polytunnels do not require an Environmental Impact Assessment

A Herefordshire farmer who wished to set up more than 50 hectares of polytunnels on his 377 hectare farm found his wishes opposed by environmental group Natural England in a case which went to the Court of Appeal. The farmer's local council decided that an environmental impact assessment (EIA) was not required in order to grant planning permission. Natural England...

Supreme Court guidance on protection of species

It is common for developments - especially in more rural areas - to be opposed on environmental grounds, which include situations in which the area under development is the natural habitat of a rare or endangered species. Recently, the Supreme Court was called upon to rule on the limits to such challenges. The EU Council Directive that covers the conservation...

The waste minimisation challenge: environmental law for businesses

The environment and the effect that we have on it are high profile and emotive topics not least when it comes to the handling and disposal of the massive volumes of waste that businesses generate. Our historic solution to waste has been to bury it, sometimes in ways that were positively damaging to the environment. It is only relatively recently...