Former Sustainable Development Commission chair Jonathon Porritt has launched a scathing attack on the Government's claim to be the "greenest government ever" in a review of its performance after one year.
A report commissioned by Friends of the Earth says the "big society" idea has the potential to drive local environmental action and protect green spaces, but devolving power risks creating significant environmental challenges.
He says the Government has failed to consider such potential impacts.
Much of his attack centres on the Government's onslaught on the planning system which he says is particularly worrying.
"Planning is the principal tool we have to ensure that we get the right kind of development in the right places: this is not bureaucracy or red tape, as communities secretary Eric Pickles caricatures it, but essential to any civilised society," he says.
"If new housing development is granted without proper planning, and new communities spring up without linked services, there could be extreme pressure on schools, hospitals, doctors' services and public transport. Promoting economic development above other considerations will result in a development free-for-all, which local authorities and people will have almost no means to stop. People will end up having less say in what happens in their area, in direct conflict with the Government's own localism agenda."
He says replacement of regional development agencies and government offices for the regions with local enterprise partnerships has seen the loss of structures formerly in place, like regional strategies, to ensure low-carbon development and sustainability.
The Regional Growth Fund's first round ignored sustainability.
Regional rebalancing of the economy pays no regard to issues like water shortages when promoting major developments and he says Mr Pickles is intent on securing growth at all costs and does not share David Cameron's view that the type of economic activity matters.
The presumption in favour of sustainable development could be introduced before it is defined and the sort of inherently pro-growth national planning framework under discussion would be entirely incompatible with sustainable development.
"Further plans announced in the Budget to scrap brownfield development targets and introduce land auctions (whereby local authorities can sell off land with planning permission to make money) are also very worrying," he says.
"CPRE estimates that Labour's commendable insistence on brownfield targets has prevented development on greenfield land of the equivalent of double the size of Manchester over the last decade."
