The last ten days have seen the UK Government undermine their promises for nature at every turn, with Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill threatening to weaken environmental protections, and a reversal in ambitions for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) damaging industry confidence in nature markets and further digging the grave for wildlife.
Next week the Government will set out its Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), an opportunity to embed nature into the course of public spending for the year ahead and get wildlife restoration and climate change action back on track. Yet reports suggest that the CSR is set to make a bad situation much worse, with huge cuts to sustainable farming support on the cards.
Today, The Wildlife Trusts are warning that this risks an unparalleled policy hammer blow on the countryside. As set out in this new briefing, any cut to the farming budget would add to the growing pile of broken promises from the UK Government on nature.
The farming budget is the largest budget supporting nature recovery. With more than 70% of the UK farmed, evidence has proved that without adequate funding to support sustainable farming schemes, the UK Government’s legally binding target to halt the decline of nature by 2030 will be missed. Efforts to curb agricultural emissions and build climate resilience will also be severely dented, leaving farmers and society more exposed to the impacts of flooding and drought. Any cut to the farming budget therefore imperils both the future of farming and environmental recovery, The Wildlife Trusts warn.
Vicki Hird, strategic lead on agriculture at The Wildlife Trusts, says:
‘‘A year ago, Labour politicians promised to restore nature and safeguard the countryside. Now in office, they are doing the opposite, weakening environmental protections and preparing to cut the sustainable farming schemes needed to secure a thriving future for farmers and rural communities. If cuts are implemented as reported, these broken promises will put nature recovery targets out of reach, halt the farming transition and leave farmers high and dry.”
The package of recent nature-damaging policies, spearheaded by the Chancellor, directly break the General Election much-heralded promise that ‘the next Labour government will protect and restore nature, safeguarding our beautiful countryside for future generations to experience and enjoy’. A cut to the farming budget would further row back on Labour’s commitments, specifically their promise to ‘promote regenerative farming and nature’s recovery through the Environment Land Management schemes (ELMS) to protect nature and secure Britain's long-term food security’.
Vicki Hird continues:
"There is still time for those at the top of Government to avoid the worst of this damage. The Treasury must urgently rethink proposed Defra cuts and protect the farming budget and ELMS, before it inflicts a hammer blow on rural England. This must be the start of a Government-wide shift back to their own environmental promises, fixing the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to prevent environmental regression, supporting emerging nature markets through upholding BNG, and empowering environmental regulators to do their jobs.
"Without this return to what was pledged to voters, this Government’s environmental legacy will be the scarring of the countryside, not the saving of it.”
