An independent review of Defra’s regulatory landscape

1 In brief
2 Key elements of the review
3 Recommendations for Defra from the Corry Review as numbered
4 Related articles on Designing Buildings
5 External links

[edit] In brief

The Corry Review (2025) of Defra’s regulatory landscape published in April 2025 concluded that the current system is fragmented, risk-averse, and overly focused on process rather than outcomes, limiting both economic growth and environmental recovery. It makes 29 recommendations across five themes: shifting towards outcome-driven and proportionate regulation, simplifying rules to cut “green tape,” providing consistent and trusted compliance pathways, unlocking private finance alongside public funding, and modernising regulators with digital and innovative tools. In response, Defra began implementing key reforms, such as piloting single lead regulators for major infrastructure, streamlining permits, updating guidance, launching a Nature Market Accelerator, and creating a Defra Infrastructure Board aimed at delivering more coherent, flexible, and effective regulation that supports both development and nature recovery.

[edit] Key elements of the review

[edit] Critical diagnosis and strategy

The report scrutinised whether Defra’s existing regulatory architecture, comprising numerous regulators and overlapping rules, is fit to simultaneously promote economic growth and nature recovery. It found the current system to be overly complex, risk-averse, and micro-focused, inhibiting large-scale environmental outcomes and slowing development. The 29 recommendations were grouped under five transformational themes: focusing on outcomes at scale with proportionality, removing “green tape” for adaptive regulation, offering a consistent “thin green line” of regulatory compliance that empowers trusted partners, unlocking private green finance alongside targeted public investment, and modernising regulators through digital, real-time, and innovative approaches.

[edit] Key reforms and implementation plans

A core proposal was to move from patchwork, cautious enforcement toward a more strategic, flexible, and outcome-driven regulatory model. Amongst the 29 recommendations, Defra is urged to: publish clearer outcome-based objectives aligned with the national Environmental Improvement Plan; issue unified Strategic Policy Statements across agencies like the Environment Agency and Natural England (alongside establishing the Defra Infrastructure Board) to streamline major infrastructure delivery; consolidate legal duties to reduce duplication; pilot “regulatory sandboxes” to enable experimentation; and introduce lead regulators for complex projects to avoid conflicting guidance.

[edit] Early government response and acceleration of reforms

Defra moved quickly to implement nine of the most impactful proposals, embedded in the Labour “Plan for Change.” These included piloting a single lead regulator for nationally significant infrastructure projects, overhauling environmental guidance (e.g., on bats), revamping permits to enable risk-based exemptions for low-risk or temporary developments, creating a unified digital portal for planning advice, and establishing the Nature Market Accelerator to channel private green finance. A Defra Infrastructure Board is being launched, and Strategic Policy Statements are being issued to improve accountability and clarity across regulators. In essence, the Corry Review reframes Defra’s regulatory challenge not as a question of reducing environmental protections, but rather of making regulation smarter, more coherent, flexible, digital, and aligned to deliver large-scale nature recovery alongside economic progress.

[edit] Recommendations for Defra from the Corry Review as numbered

Recommendation 1: Introduce refreshed regulator outcomes linked to the Environmental Improvement Plan, with clear accountability and regular public reporting.
Recommendation 2: Publish consistent Strategic Policy Statements across all regulators to clarify government priorities and reduce inefficiency.
Recommendation 3: Establish a Defra Infrastructure Board to accelerate major projects by setting priorities, learning from past projects, and addressing barriers with proportionate regulatory decisions.
Recommendation 4: Consolidate regulators’ statutory duties and codes into a clear, core set aligned with government priorities to reduce regulatory overload and confusion.
Recommendation 5: Improve cooperation by appointing a lead regulator for major multi-regulator projects, with clear processes, information sharing, and named contacts.
Recommendation 6: Explore targeted pay flexibility for regulators to attract and retain specialist staff in competition with the private sector.
Recommendation 7: Ensure regulators dedicate resources effectively to growth and outcomes, including cost recovery, private investment, and resilience against emergency pressures.
Recommendation 8: Use Local Nature Recovery Strategies as the foundation for local Environmental Improvement Plans, coordinated by Combined Authorities with partners.
Recommendation 9: Review funding streams like biodiversity net gain to ensure flexible, effective support for local delivery of environmental and nature recovery goals.
Recommendation 10: Create regulatory sandboxes where rules can be waived safely to test innovative projects and encourage experimentation without harming the environment.
Recommendation 11: Develop a rolling reform programme for key environmental regulations, prioritising quick wins while addressing complex areas like water, habitats, agricultural pollution, and permitting.
Recommendation 12: Reform slurry application and storage rules into a single, clearer set of regulations to tackle diffuse agricultural water pollution and improve farmer compliance.
Recommendation 13: Accelerate updates to the Environmental Permit Regulations to give regulators more flexibility for risk-based decisions, supporting net-zero, the circular economy, and waste categorisation.
Recommendation 14: Review and streamline overlapping or duplicative regulations and regulatory practices, particularly in areas like the marine environment where multiple regulators assess the same applications.
Recommendation 15: Allow trusted environmental partners greater autonomy through tools such as memoranda of understanding (MOUs).
Recommendation 16: Provide more support to ensure compliance, which includes improved access to simplified guidance and stronger penalties for repeat or deliberate non-compliance.
Recommendation 17: Increase frequency of risk-based monitoring using digital, real-time approaches and make the information more publicly accessible.
Recommendation 18: Deliver tougher penalties for deliberate non-compliance and persistent offenders, including giving regulators the power to issue rapid fines for minor offences.
Recommendation 19: The OEP should focus more on driving environmental outcomes rather than processes, encouraging regulators to take proportionate risks to achieve government goals.
Recommendation 20: Conduct a short review of chargeable services and cost recovery to strengthen the polluter pays principle and fund faster, more transparent digital services.
Recommendation 21: Create an industry-funded Nature Market Accelerator to provide governance, standardisation, and investor confidence in nature markets while helping match projects with investment.
Recommendation 22: Government should issue a call for evidence on expanding private investment into nature, particularly through nature-based solutions (NBS) as economic infrastructure.
Recommendation 23: Run a six-month sprint with industry to remove regulatory barriers to using NBS for flooding and pollution, while also assessing the latest scientific evidence on their effectiveness.
Recommendation 24: Quickly review and improve compliance nature market schemes (e.g., biodiversity net gain and nutrient credits) to simplify processes and support broader environmental delivery.
Recommendation 25: Use its 25-year farming roadmap to explain how rural grants, payments, and green finance can be integrated to support both food production and nature recovery.
Recommendation 26: Appoint two digital champions (a Minister and senior official) to drive digital transformation, prioritising investment, remove paper processes, and increasing transparency with live monitoring data, supported by external experts.
Recommendation 27: Accelerate delivery of a unified permitting portal across regulators by 2025–26, ensuring transparency, consistency, and a clear business case linking investment to economic growth.
Recommendation 28: Use the Defra AI Strategy 2030 to identify three ambitious AI applications that enhance digital regulation, support growth and nature recovery, and scale across regulators, guided by cross-organisational input and ministerial oversight.
Recommendation 29: Fast-track data sharing across regulators and externally, prioritising real-time, useful, and publicly available data to improve efficiency, trust, and opportunities for citizen science.