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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent

High costs deterring legal challenges in England and Wales to protect environment, NGOs say

HS2 works in Buckinghamshire
HS2 works in Buckinghamshire. The report says rules changes in recent years allow developers to apply to increase default caps in environmental cases. Photograph: Jim Dyson/Getty Images

Prohibitively high costs are pricing individuals and community groups out of bringing legal challenges in England and Wales to protect the environment, major NGOs say.

A joint report by the RSPB, the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) and Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, says cases raising concerns about loss of green space, wildlife habitat and the climate crisis have been abandoned because of fears about costs, even when they have good prospects of success. It suggests the number of environmental judicial review applications may have halved in a decade.

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