A range of innovative projects to tackle litter louts in local communities have been awarded funding by the government, Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey has announced today (9 March 2018).

The first round of funding sees a number of councils, charities, businesses, and public projects awarded almost £125,000 to take innovative steps to tackle littering in their communities.

The successful projects include developing bins to prevent seagulls from scattering litter on beaches and working with river users to reduce plastic getting into rivers, helping to tackle the issue of litter getting into our marine environment.

The funding builds on the Government’s wider Litter Strategy for England, as well as the recent launch of the 25 Year Environment Plan setting out how Government will protect and enhance our natural environment.

Welcoming the new projects, Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said:

We want to be the first generation to leave our environment in a better state than we found it and these innovative new projects will help reduce the amount of litter which so often plagues our streets, parks, countryside, rivers and marine environment.

We have all seen the damaging effects that litter can have on wildlife and the environment, and I encourage people to do their bit, take responsibility for their litter and recycle more.

If Michael Gove brings the same zeal to bear in his new post as environment secretary as he exercised on schools and prisons, some of Britain’s farmers may be in for a shock.

Even before he gatecrashed last year’s Tory leadership contest, knocking his supposed friend Boris Johnson out of the race, Gove was a deeply controversial figure.

Accompanied by his loyal adviser Dominic Cummings, who went on to mastermind the Vote Leave campaign in last year’s referendum, Gove slashed and burned his way through decades of conventional wisdom in education – making an enemy of the teaching unions in the process. From his bid to take climate change out of the geography curriculum, to the expansion of the use of untrained teachers, to dispatching a Bible to every school, he frequently infuriated the educational establishment – but his allies insist he was working tirelessly to drive up standards, not deliberately picking battles.

For an industry that’s been around as long as mankind itself, farming has been at the centre of human achievement.

And, no matter how the world around us changes, we rely on the same three basic needs to sustain us – food, air, and water.

Farming is at the heart of all of our lives.

It builds rural communities; it supports our beautiful natural environment.

And vitally, as the global population moves towards 9 billion by 2050, it feeds us.

Nothing should be more important to us all than the continued success of this great industry, so your theme for this year’s conference, ‘Thrive or Survive’, is very fitting.

And I am confident that 2016 will be remembered as the year that the UK chose to do a whole lot more than just ‘survive’.

Our ambition – both as a country and as an industry – should be to grow and prosper like never before.

Producing, competing, profiting

The provenance of British food matters to consumers all around the world.

When they choose British, they know they can trust the origins of our unique, great tasting products.

And through our schools we will be encouraging the next generation to have a closer connection to the land and a better understanding of the food chain.

• Right now, the whole of our food chain, from farm to fork, adds £110 billion to our economy each year.
• Food and drink is already the UK’s largest manufacturing sector – adding more value to our economy than the car and aerospace industries combined.
• Our exports are increasing; non-EU dairy exports are up 91%; wheat exports are up 80%; and, a real triumph, British lamb was voted product of the year in France last year.
• Agriculture & Food is one of the fastest growing subject areas at University, with the first graduates from Sheffield Hallam’s food engineering course now joining the workforce.
• And our core-strength is our world-leading position in animal welfare, food safety and food traceability.

So, as we prepare to leave the EU, the fundamentals of the sector are strong.

I believe the British people have handed our food, farming and fishing industries an extraordinary opportunity to ‘thrive’.

Twin-ambitions for Defra

I was truly delighted to be appointed Defra Secretary, and since joining the Department, I have made very clear my two, long-term ambitions:

1      Firstly, to make a resounding success of our world-leading food and farming industry; producing more, selling more, and exporting more of our Great British food.

2      And secondly, to become the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we found it.

These ambitions look far beyond tomorrow; they are about long-lasting change and real reform – an even greater food and farming nation that works for everyone.

This blog from Catherine Wright (director of knowledge and innovation at the Environment Agency) provides an update on Defra’s data programme – and in particular its themes and focus.

Catherine joined Defra’s Data Programme Board meeting – chaired by Emily Miles – with colleagues from across Defra group for its second meeting on 19 October. I also met Sophia Oliver, who heads up the Data Programme.

The vision for the group’s data is simple: ‘In future, we will have better data, better used’. There are three guiding principles: that we will be data-driven; that our data will be valued and shared; and that it will be open by design. It is the role of the Data Programme Board to deliver this vision.

The technology revolution is a data revolution, and our challenge is to harness that data, enabling us to work more effectively with communities and customers to support innovation in the UK economy.

Defra’s data holdings are incredibly rich: from long terms datasets on species and environmental quality through to data updated daily such as on animal and waste movements; to data captured in real time on the operations of assets; to harnessing new sources of data, such as from satellites; to data on our staffing resources that enables us to be paid every month.

The vision is simple, delivering it will require focus and effort from us all. That is where the data governance board comes in: to enable Defra group to realise the value of its data.

Industry leaders are seeking urgent meetings with Defra ministers and other government officials to address vital farming issues once the EU referendum is over.

NFU president Meurig Raymond said farmers were losing out because politicians had left important agricultural issues on the back burner for almost three months, while they have fought over the UK’s future relationship with Europe.

Such is the level of concern that the NFU has convened an emergency meeting of its 90-strong leadership council in central London a week on Friday (1 July) – just 10 days after the union’s regular quarterly council meeting held earlier this week.

Speaking the day before the EU referendum, Mr Raymond said: “The government hasn’t functioned properly for the past few months while the referendum debate has taken place. We need urgent decisions to be made across a number of big areas.”

Unresolved issues include the lack of a promised 25-year government strategy for the UK farming industry, slow progress in the battle against bovine TB, ongoing problems with basic payments and the threatened withdrawal of agrochemicals.

This guide sets out detailed information for flood risk management authorities and others involved in managing flood and coastal erosion risks in England.

In addition, Defra has issued guidance and information notes on a variety of issues which can be accessed through the flood risk legislation and guidance guide.

Liz Truss says as much in her foreword, which identifies:

“The core purposes of Defra are to support economic growth by promoting a thriving and internationally successful food and farming sector, to improve the natural environment and to provide security to homes and businesses against the threats of flooding and animal and plant disease.”

The former minister’s Defra portfolio also concerned the natural environment, including biodiversity, pollinators, land management and soil, ecosystem services and wildlife management and plant and tree health.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble will take up Lord de Mauley’s role as Defra spokesman in the House of Lords. However, Lord Gardiner has not been handed any ministerial duties.

Lord de Mauley’s duties will be divided between the three remaining Defra ministers: farm minister George Eustice, Defra secretary Liz Truss and Rory Stewart, Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border, who was appointed as parliamentary undersecretary of state in David Cameron’s post-election cabinet reshuffle last week.

A Defra spokesman said the department’s ministerial duties would be confirmed by the end of this week. Updates will be posted on the Defra website.

The spokesman added: “Lord Gardiner of Kimble has been appointed as the Lords spokesperson for Defra – portfolios are currently being finalised and will be announced in due course.”

Sweeping cuts to Defra’s budget and personnel have raised doubts about the department’s future and its ability to deal with future emergencies, such as flooding.

Homeowners will be given a helping hand to make their home more flood resilient in the future thanks to a new government grant scheme opening today.

People whose homes and businesses were flooded between 1 December and 31 March can now apply for a government grant of up to £5,000 through their local authority, regardless of where they live.

The purpose of the grant is to help people with the cost of buying and installing new measures to reduce the chances of flooding in the first place, or limit the damage should they be flooded in the future.

This could include things like a new driveway barrier or replacing doors and windows with water resistant alternatives, or moving electricity sockets to a safer level.

Even if property owners have already fitted new measures following this winter’s flooding they can still apply for the grant retrospectively to cover the cost.