Environmental Permitting – a new record?

As you all know, environmental permitting has been in a shocking state since Covid, with permits routinely taking up to 12 months and occasionally longer. So it was with real surprise that we received a permit on behalf of a client just over 10 weeks after submission.

We submitted an application for a Standard Rules permit SR2015 No 14 – Metal recycling site on Christmas Eve 2024. To our great surprise, the client received the permit 71 days later on 5th March 2025.

Is this a sign of things to come? Well, possibly, but only for some applications. The new validation regime being applied to new applications seems to have brought in a two tier sytem with new, simple applications being dealt with separately to older applications. That might seem unfair, that a company who has been waiting 5 months already may have to wait longer than a new applicant before their permit is determined, but at least its progress of sorts.

Either way, we have one happy customer right now.