Nature needs our help!

I’m writing this blog to urge you to do all you can to put a stop to the UK Government’s proposed changes to planning and agriculture policies, which amount to an attack on nature.

In 2019 the Conservative Party was elected to Government on a manifesto pledge to deliver the “most ambitious environmental programme of any country on earth”. The weakening of vital environmental protections is a 180-degree u-turn on that promise, which the Government has no mandate to do.

The UK Government is now dismissing environmental protections as ‘burdens’ but our economy depends upon everything that nature provides – from food production to clean air and water and so much more. A commitment to deregulation, which allows developers to get away with trashing our most important wildlife sites and polluters to poison our rivers with more sewage, will only damage our country and economy.

Deregulation is often characterised as “cutting red tape” but, in reality, it means that polluters can get away with poisoning our rivers and countryside. It also means ripping up the rules that protect our most important wildlife sites from damage and removing funding that supports farmers to restore wildlife across our landscapes. For the good of future generations, we must retain existing laws and enhance nature protection instead.

The announcement of new planning and infrastructure law and ‘investment zones’ represent the weakening of protections that safeguard our already beleaguered wildlife, whilst putting our most precious local wildlife sites at threat from bulldozers and concrete. This is in addition to the new Retained EU Law Bill, where the UK Government threatens to revoke hundreds of laws that have their origins in policies from the European Union. Whatever our views on Brexit, many of these laws provide vital environmental protections for our air, rivers, wildlife and food standards. They helped remove the UK’s 1970s reputation of being the ‘dirty man of Europe’ by cleaning up our waters. If retained EU legislation is replaced with weaker alternatives, our natural environment will be left unprotected from those who prioritise profit over protecting the planet.  

What’s more, reversing plans to support nature-friendly farming that were pledged in the Government’s election manifesto would be devastating for nature. Returning to an agricultural system where farmers are paid with taxpayers' money based on how much land they own is unfair and unsustainable. In short, the main environmental benefit from Brexit could now be scrapped.

We cannot let the UK Government pretend that it can have it both ways – that it can gut environmental laws whilst also positioning itself as a climate and nature leader on the world stage. The UK Government needs to:

1. Strengthen the rules that protect our most important wildlife and habitats – don’t just remove them. 
2. Increase support for nature friendly farming to secure a sustainable future for British farming and nature.  
3. Set a legally binding target to ensure nature is in a better state by 2042. 

I have already contacted our six MPs in Worcestershire, seeking their support to stop these disastrous changes. Please join me by writing to your MP, urging them to do all they can to persuade the Prime Minister and the Government to put a stop to this attack on nature and instead ramp up action to protect our wildlife, our climate and our futures.

Contact details and further information to help you take action can be found in the link below 👇