Natural England – Hinterland

Budget cuts threaten to weaken powers of England’s nature watchdog

Ivan Annibal — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 11:55:59 +0000

Established on 1 October 2006 through the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act, Natural England is the non-departmental bit of Defra responsible for ensuring the natural environment is protected and improved. It’s been in the news this week after Greenpeace obtained an internal document from June setting out how the body will “make more proportionate use of our regulatory powers” and “retain our regulatory powers but will use them more proportionately and more efficiently, while increasingly operating through advice and partnership.” This has led to a series of debates around whether raising funding from the private companies it’s supposed to be keeping in check will weaken the body; if the body is becoming pro-development; whether providing “advice to government that is politically aware” means its ability to provide science-based independent advice will be diminished; and what the effects of capturing site information remotely rather than through visits and environmental record centres might have. According to the article, Natural England is less likely to go to court compared to five years ago, and less likely to take up cases on a local level: with the Wildlife Trusts citing Natural England’s failure to stop the ploughing of a wildflower meadow in Coventry and withdrawing an objection related to a housing development in Chudleigh that the threatened greater horseshoe bats in a protected area. Natural England is facing a budget cut of 27% and a reduction in headcount of 20% by 2020. In order to raise more money as its budget is cut by £30 million by the end of 2020 compared to 2015-2016 levels, Natural England plans to raise more money by charging the private sector, such as water companies, housebuilders and windfarm developers, for its services. It raised £1.43 million in 2015-2016 by charging £110 an hour for such services, and hopes to increase this to £12 million a year by 2020. Martin Harper, the RSPB’s conservation director, said: “Nature is in trouble – and so it is vital that we have a strong and effective statutory nature conservation agency able to do whatever nature needs…Natural England has already been subject to huge reductions in its capacity to do its vital job, and the current political context means that it has increasingly moved away from using the full range of tools available to protect and restore nature. However, a representative from Natural England described how “there has been absolutely no change in Natural England’s statutory role or driving mission to protect and enhance the country’s nature, habitats and landscapes… Working with communities and stakeholders ever more efficiently, we will assess challenges and implement solutions on a ‘landscape scale’, always focussing on the ultimate outcome: an improved environment for all of us”. Will Natural England have ‘significantly reduced national capacity?’ Watch this space…

Triennial Review of the Environment Agency and Natural England

Ivan Annibal — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:55:50 +0000

This article summarises the views of 222 individuals and 135 organisations that responded to Defra’s discussion paper setting out a range of scenarios to reform the
Environment Agency and Natural England.

A number of stakeholders strongly support the retention of two separate bodies, and some were firmly against the idea of a single merged body. Interestingly, an unnamed environmental NGO launched an email and letter writing campaign which encouraged 180 people to respond to the discussion paper. Interestingly, the summary document is intended to reflect the evidence received and not Government Policy or the work of the Challenge Group. Watch this space.

Millions wasted on farm inspections, says audit office

Ivan Annibal — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:03:57 +0000

According to the National Audit Office (NAO), farm inspections in England burdens compliant farmers, cost taxpayers too much money (£5,500 average annual cost per farm) and are not streamlined or joined up enough.

Nine separate government bodies, including Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Rural Payments Agency, made at least 114,000 visits to English farms during 2011 and 2012, costing £47 million, reports Farmers Weekly.

Some 84% of farmers responding to the NAO survey believed oversight bodies should coordinate their activity more. Whilst farm inspections provide assurance that farmers comply with regulations and prevent animal disease and environmental pollution. They are also needed to check that farmers comply with common agricultural policy (CAP) so that they can receive payments from the European Union. The NAO report makes a series of recommendations around avoiding the duplication of effort, need for coordination and information sharing and ensuring cost effectiveness.

The report – ‘streamlining farm oversight’ – can be found here.