That has now changed. In March, the government published its Roadmap to Reform, setting out a three-stage programme for EORs with the aim of bringing them into housing and infrastructure planning by the end of 2027.

The government has now put in place plans to bring forward a new domestic framework of environmental assessment, replacing the EU-derived EIA and SEA regimes through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023.

The new system is intended to tie assessment more closely to national environmental priorities, backed by standardised data, digital templates, clearer reporting formats and more active monitoring. For anyone promoting development, this is a material change in how environmental reporting will need to be approached.

A new premise for environmental reporting

The biggest shift is conceptual. The existing EIA regime is built around identifying likely significant effects and explaining mitigation.

The new model is intended to move the conversation towards outcomes: whether a plan or project supports the delivery of defined environmental goals.

This has been largely welcomed by the development industry. A more focused system is intended to require reporting that is shorter, clearer and more useful to decision-makers.

But a system based on outcomes will demand more than a well-assembled Environmental Statement at the end of design development. It will require promoters to think earlier about how a scheme performs against environmental expectations that are likely to be more explicit and more measurable than before.

The need for preparation to begin now

My main advice to clients will be to avoid waiting for the regulations, templates and guidance before reacting.

Admittedly the government still has a great deal to produce. Outcomes are to be set through secondary legislation. Guidance will need to explain how they should be evidenced. Data standards are to be prescribed through regulations. There will then be pilots, examples and a period of testing, with a transitional phase likely and the old and new systems potentially running in parallel for a time, as happened when the EIA Regulations changed in 2017.

And that is precisely why preparation matters now. By the time the final detail is available, many of the schemes affected in 2027 and beyond will be in the pipeline: designs will be complete, baseline work may already have been commissioned and funding expectations and programmes built around current habits will be in place.

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The first task, in my view, is to review project pipelines with a close eye on timing. Anything likely to be entering or moving through the planning system around 2027 should be looked at now through an EOR lens. While it is not possible to guess every detail of a regime that has not yet been drafted, now is the time to consider practical questions. Which schemes rely on substantial environmental reporting? Which have sensitivities around biodiversity, water, air quality, flood risk or climate resilience? Which may require more active monitoring over time?

The second task is to start embedding outcomes thinking into scheme design. We already know that Biodiversity Net Gain, Habitats Regulations and Environmental Delivery Plans will sit outside the EOR framework, even if the government wants better alignment between them. So the sensible strategy is not to pause current work, but to strengthen the way environmental performance is considered from the outset, including biodiversity net gain and other outcomes relating to water, air and soil. There is also likely to be greater emphasis on monitoring and delivery, which means those considerations should be built in from the start rather than treated as an afterthought.

The third task is data readiness. EORs will rely on prescribed datasets, standardised evidence and more consistent reporting formats, so developers and their consultant teams need to think now about how environmental information is captured, stored, shared and updated. That means starting to adopt standard digital formats for environmental data where possible and thinking about how EOR-style reporting could help reduce the length of Environmental Statements through more standardised presentation.

For planners and consultants, it will also be important over the next year to monitor consultations, guidance and draft regulations carefully and take part where possible. The roadmap makes clear that the government wants policy development to be shaped with users, supported by expert working groups, pilots and practitioner workshops, so those of us who prepare, co-ordinate and review environmental reporting should contribute to the evolution of the process.

Looking ahead

There are many benefits to the new system. The current system can be unwieldy and can reward length over clarity and repetition over judgement. A more proportionate approach, linked to clear national environmental priorities, could be good for planning and good for development if it produces reporting that is more intelligible and decisions that are more robust.

But I would be cautious about assuming that speed will come automatically. Any new framework of this kind will create uncertainty unless the transition is carefully handled. The quality of the regulations, the guidance, the pilots and the eventual rollout will matter far more than the headlines attached to the reform.

My hope is that the planning and development sectors react not with alarm nor complacency but with preparation. We should be — and many already are — reviewing pipelines, strengthening environmental thinking in design and getting data in order, engaging with the emerging framework and helping clients understand what may change, and what will not. Those who use the next 18 months well are likely to be in a much better position when the new system finally arrives.