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Pollution and environmental quality

Guidance and regulation

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  • Where you’ll find clean air zones, how to check if you’ll need to pay a charge and create a business account, and what support or exemptions are available.

  • How councils deal with complaints about noise at night, intruder alarms, construction noise and loudspeakers in the street.

  • How to meet the general binding rules if your septic tank or small sewage treatment plant releases (discharges) waste water to the ground.

  • How to meet the general binding rules if your septic tank or small sewage discharge treatment plant releases (discharges) waste water to a surface water.

  • Common causes of artificial light nuisance, lights that are exempt and how councils can assess light.

  • How councils deal with complaints about smoke from premises that's a statutory nuisance, smoke that's exempt and how smoke can be assessed.

  • Get help to improve water and air quality, and reduce flood risk on agricultural land.

  • How to develop a management system and keep it up to date so that you can carry out activities under an environmental permit.

  • How to change details of your environmental permit, transfer it to somebody else or cancel it.

  • Find out where SPZs are, what defines the different zones and why the Environment Agency must protect groundwater from pollution.

  • When you need to do an environmental risk assessment, when the Environment Agency will do it for you, and how to do a risk assessment.

  • How to assess and manage the risks from land contamination.

  • How businesses and organisations can avoid causing pollution from oil and chemical storage, car washing, construction and other activities.

  • How councils assess and deal with nuisance odours from industrial, trade and business premises.

  • Identify, describe, classify and manage waste upholstered domestic seating containing persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

  • How to complete an air emissions risk assessment, including how to calculate the impact of your emissions and the standards you must meet.

  • What you must do to manage manure, fertiliser and soil to prevent runoff, erosion and leaching.

  • How you must control and monitor emissions from your activities that may cause pollution.

  • Find out if and by when you need to apply for a medium combustion plant directive (MCPD) environmental permit to meet air quality requirements.

  • On 13 September 2023, the House of Lords voted against government proposals intended to unlock 100,000 homes between now and 2030 whilst protecting and improving the environment.