Demographic trends and consumption patterns are threatening the UK environment

UCL researchers have contributed to the Royal Commission report on Environmental Pollution, which calls for a step-change in efforts to reduce consumption and waste generation by individuals and households to protect the UK environment. The report by the Commission, whose members include Professors Maria Lee and Joanne Scott (UCL Laws) asserts that a focus on total population ignores where people live and work, and that regional development policy and the planning system are potentially much more effective ways of protecting the environment. As people have become steadily more affluent, consumption has tended to increase substantially. National income has more than doubled in the last forty years, while the population has grown by only ten per cent. In particular, the demand for new housing and related development as a result of demographic change will increasingly come up against environmental constraints in some parts of the country. The constraints can be managed but at a significant economic and environmental cost, say the authors. The government should compare these costs with the cost of enhanced incentives to encourage development in areas facing fewer constraints.