Dear Prime Minister,
Nature needs leadership
Congratulations on your success in rising to number 10. Amongst the many issues you will need to urgently address is the state of nature in the UK, one of the most nature-depleted countries in the developed world. This parlous condition has many causes. One of them is directly related to the state of those government agencies and regulatory bodies charged with delivering the policies and mechanisms for your government’s ambitions for the natural world, as set out in the 25 year Environment Plan. There is a growing feeling that collectively these bodies and mechanisms are not fit for purpose. We now need more than a catch-up, we need to invest in reversing the declining health of nature.
You could make a start by instigating a change of culture at the highest level of government. Managers and practitioners can deliver desired outcomes if they are given the tools and resources they need, including policies to validate and endorse their activities; resources, human and financial, to enable them to act; and regulations to safeguard and underpin what they have done. Indeed, bad as the situation is, it would be much worse without the efforts of the nature conservation sector across the public, private and voluntary sectors. Changing attitudes and culture, and setting agendas, though is a job for leaders, and none more so than the Prime Minister. As the holder of that office, you set the tone. A lacklustre approach from you will send the message that a particular area of activity is unimportant.
Pollution is one of the main factors in the decline of wildlife, and is a prime example of where the public sector is failing. The Environment Agency (EA) is responsible for investigating and taking action against polluters. Yet, according to its Chief Executive Sir James Bevan, the EA has been instructed by the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) not to enforce rules on water pollution. This gives free reign to water companies and others to poison our rivers and wetlands, as evidenced by the recent spate of pollution incidents related to sewage outflows. There is also evidence that, ludicrously, one EA department often destroys habitat improvement works on rivers carried out by another department, as on the river Avon in Warwickshire.
Then, also related to Defra, there are the changes to farm support following Brexit. Despite promises to reward farmers for helping wildlife under the reformed system, the recently published National Food Strategy indicates that this idea has been largely abandoned. As farming occupies about 70% of land in this country this is really bad news for wildlife. This situation also flies in the face of assurances given in the run up to the EU referendum, that if we left the EU we would not just maintain the Union’s environmental protection regime, we would improve it.
Climate change is another major factor impacting wildlife. Addressing this and nature depletion are two sides of the same coin. A joined-up approach to policies, regulations and actions is imperative: nature-based solutions provide a symbiosis between protecting and enhancing the natural world and adapting to and mitigating climate change. As Prime Minister one of your essential roles is to see this bigger picture and ensure cross-sector working.
This means, amongst other things, providing adequate budgets for the relevant departments and agencies. The good news is, that compared to other demands on the public purse, the amounts required are relatively modest. The measure of the problem is illustrated by Natural England’s budget: the recent welcome increase to £261.6m for 2022-23 is still less than 2008-09’s £265m, which is the equivalent to £371m today. This is a huge shortfall in this context, but relatively minor compared to the billions of pounds apparently needed for other issues, such as energy. It is no coincidence that during these years wildlife and the health of nature has declined substantially. You bear some responsibility for this, having been Secretary of State for the Environment for two of the years, from 2014-2016.
Ironically, we now have a new layer of bureaucracy, the Office of Environmental Protection. This looks like a piece of expensive window-dressing which is actually diverting resources from where they are most needed. It is not difficult to identify where we are failing and why this is so. Those things are blindingly obvious, but the Environment Agency, Natural England and others will be distracted in dealing with and responding to this unnecessary watchdog.
Policy, regulation and operational infrastructure may be weak, but the most urgent need is for a change of culture and thinking at the highest level of government. The necessary improvements in infrastructure will flow from this. All the attention leading up to your appointment was on economic and social issues. Equal emphasis should be placed on nature, so it is integrated with economic and social activities. It underpins them and has a major impact upon them.
Civil service and political mindsets need to change: you and others at the highest level of government should be as concerned about the state of nature as the state of the economy. You must be proactive not reactive. Fixing nature’s support systems is a necessary pre-cursor to successfully dealing with social and economic problems. Please don’t be tempted to put nature to one side whilst you deal with other things. In this context you could do worse than to consult the current Minister of State for the Pacific and the International Environment, Zak Goldsmith. He recently made an impassioned speech in the House of Lords emphasising the importance of government action for nature. This is not least because compared to other issues, such as fuel for energy, market forces are not stimulating action by the private sector.
We don’t need any more committees of enquiry or commissions. We have decades of experience and there is an army of people who know what is needed. They look to the Prime Minister for inspiration and support, and evidence that caring for nature has equal and ongoing concern with other areas of government. Occasional set-piece speeches and welly-wearing photo-opportunities will not do, although the International Biodiversity Convention’s COP 15 event in December provides an opportunity to set out your stall. What we need from you is concern and debate on a continuing basis, as is the case with economic, health and social issues. And please, no vague references to ‘the environment’ or ‘sustainability’, but direct references to nature for its own sake, its aesthetic values, the free functions it provides across our land, water and seas, and crucially just now, its value to people’s quality of life.
Providing a new and supportive framework from No.10 can only be instigated and led by the Prime Minister. A commitment to reversing decades of weak planning and other regulations (not sweeping them away because they irk developers and others) and reversing the budget and staff cuts referred to above would be a good start. There are no shortcuts to fixing nature’s problems. Tree planting for example, whilst effective in some circumstances, is not a ‘silver bullet’. Much more needs to be done.
You are the person who, by showing leadership in this context, can catalyse the revolution we need to rescue nature in this country and elevate its status in policy and decision making.
Yours sincerely
Peter Shirley MBE FRES Dip EM
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