Environmental Compensation: Can the British Planning Regime Learn from Germany?

This article reviews the potential for establishing in the British planning regime a universal obligation for environmental compensation of greenfield development, drawing on the emerging experience of Germany with this measure. It is concluded that, subject to compensation being employed only after the possibilities of avoidance and mitigation have been exhausted, it would help to secure local environmental capital against erosion by cumulated small developments, which pass through the net of environmental assessment. It is suggested that it might do this better than a greenfield tax. It might also contribute to managing land consumption per se.