Socio‐economic impacts: the poor relations in British environmental impact statements

This paper examines the need to consider the coverage of socio‐economic impacts within the environmental impact assessment process. It goes on to present the results of a review of British environmental impact statements which highlights the failure of environmental impact statements to address these issues. Fewer than half of those reviewed address any social or economic impacts, and of those that claim to address the issues, the focus is more on economic than social and the quality was found to be poor. A case study is undertaken of power stations. The paper concludes that socio‐economic impacts merit a higher profile within the environmental impact assessment process.