Single-use items like plastic cutlery, plates and trays will be banned in England, the government has confirmed.

It is not clear when the ban will come into effect, but it follows similar moves already made by Scotland and Wales.

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said the move would help protect the environment for future generations.

Campaigners welcomed the ban, but called for a wider-ranging plastic reduction strategy.

Government figures suggest that 1.1 billion single-use plates and more than four billion pieces of plastic cutlery are used in England every year.

Plastic waste often does not decompose and can last in landfill for many years.

Although it might be useful in terms of food hygiene, it can also end up as litter, in turn polluting soil and water.

The confirmation of the move from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) follows a long consultation, which will be published on Saturday 14 January.

An unspoiled, spirit-enhancing countryside view celebrated by the 19th-century critic and poet John Ruskin as one of the most beautiful in the world is under threat unless £1m can be raised.

It was after a visit in 1875 that Ruskin described the view over the River Lune from the churchyard of St Mary’s in Kirkby Lonsdale as “one of the loveliest in England, therefore in the world”.

He wrote: “Whatever moorland hill, and sweet river, and English forest foliage can be seen at their best is gathered there. And chiefly seen from the steep bank which falls to the stream side from the upper part of the town itself … I do not know in all my own country, still less in France or Italy, a place more naturally divine, or a more priceless possession of true ‘Holy Land’.”

The view was painted by JMW Turner in 1822 but it was already famous, with the poet William Wordsworth describing it as a place not to be missed in his 1810 Guide to the Lakes. It is the reason why many tourists visit the small Cumbrian market town, but if they do so today they will come across a locked gate.

The issue, according to Mike Burchnall, the chair of the town council, is that the footpath is on an embankment and when the Lune below is high it cuts into the bank. Work was done in the mid-1980s to try to reinforce the bank but a lot of that was washed away during Storm Desmond in 2015, “and we’ve had big storms ever since then so the whole bank is eroded”.

Liz Truss’s claims gas from fracking could flow in six months has been called into doubt – with one company estimating it could take as long as 18 months.

The government lifted the ban on fracking on Thursday, despite warnings from climate campaigners and geologists.

Ms Truss is hoping the move will help make the UK more self-sufficient for energy, but campaigners have warned it would do little to alleviate the huge bills Britons currently face.

And the fracking industry has said the planning and environmental permit process would need to be sped up and earthquake limits relaxed for their investment to make sense.

Firms need both environmental and planning permits to start fracking, as well as licences, Health and Safety Executive scrutiny and consent from the Business Department, according to the UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG) industry body.

People are being urged to take extra care to avoid causing fires in the countryside during hot weather, with some farmers saying they have lost thousands of pounds worth of crops.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said fires were one of the biggest risks faced by farmers during heatwaves.

One farmer told the BBC he lost around £40,000 worth of crops when one of his fields went up in flames last week.

England has experienced the driest start to the year since 1976.

The hottest ever temperature in the UK was recorded last Tuesday, with thermometers hitting 40.3C in Lincolnshire and more than 30 places reaching temperatures above the previous record.

David Exwood, vice president of the NFU, said even as the weather gets cooler, the lack of rain has increased the risk of field fires.

“There needs to be extreme care when people are out in the countryside because anything can catch fire in this weather,” he said.

Andy Barr, who owns an 800-acre farm in Lenham, Kent, had a 50-acre field of barley destroyed by a fire last Saturday.

Although he is hoping to claim on insurance, Mr Barr said the crop was worth around £40,000.

The air pollution from wood burning in homes is responsible for more than £1bn a year in health-related damages in the UK and €10bn (£8.5bn) across the EU, according to a report.

The analysis from the European Public Health Alliance found the total costs of early deaths, illness and lost work resulting from outdoor air pollution produced by all home heating was €29bn a year.

Wood burning was the biggest single cause of these costs, accounting for 54% of the total in the UK and 40% in the EU. This is despite wood stoves producing only 11% of heat in UK homes and 14% in the EU. The report combines burning wood in stoves and on open fires: in the UK two-thirds of people use stoves.

The researchers said their cost estimates were conservative because lack of data prevented them from including the impact of indoor air pollution from heating.

Compared with transport, regulators have largely neglected heating and cooking as sources of air pollution, the EPHA said. The report found that heat pumps and solar water heaters produced no air pollution at homes using them.

“It is clearer than ever that burning biomass and fossil fuels at home is not only an environmental problem, but also a major health problem,” said Milka Sokolović, the EPHA director general. “The solution, obviously, lies in ensuring that homes are powered by clean renewables. As people are grappling with high energy prices, we must avoid quick and dirty solutions.”

Air pollution is the single biggest environmental risk to health, causing millions of early deaths a year globally. In the EU, just one of pollutants, small particles under 2.5 microns in size (PM2.5), is blamed for 300,000 deaths a year. A comprehensive global review in 2019 found that air pollution may be damaging every organ in the human body.

Households could have saved nearly £400 a year in bills during the energy crisis if the government had not scrapped a green policy on homes, according to new analysis.

Data from the Liberal Democrats, seen by The Independent, increased this figure from previous estimates to reflect the rising cost of living.

It found plans to make all new homes achieve net zero emissions would have shaved hundreds of pounds off household bills when another price cap increase will see them soar in spring.

“This is yet another example of how acting sooner on climate change can save consumers money on their bills,” Chris Venables, head of politics at the Green Alliance think tank, told The Independent.

The scrapped environmental rules would have prevented new houses from releasing a net amount of carbon into the atmosphere during day-to-day running. Among other factors, this would have been achieved through good energy efficiency – considered key to keeping bills, as well as emissions, down.

Plans to safeguard England’s national parks for future generations have been unveiled by the government.

The proposals also aim to improve access to nature and ensure landscapes are key to tackling climate change.

It follows a review of protections for national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).

Environment Secretary George Eustice said the plans – including a public consultation – were “a new chapter in the story of our protected landscapes”.

The consultation runs to 9 April and will ask for views on the proposals to drive nature recovery and support communities that live and work in those areas.

The proposals include creating management plans for those in charge of the national parks and AONBs, and encouraging local leaders across England to organise campaigns, events and volunteering projects to bring the public closer to nature.

The Landscapes Review looked at whether the existing protections were still fit for purpose.

The review’s author, Julian Glover, said: “It won’t be enough just to try to conserve what we have inherited – we can change the story from decline to recovery, to make them greener, more welcoming and full of hope.”

The pandemic has seen more people spending time outside but it has also highlighted inequalities surrounding access to green spaces – with people on low incomes being disadvantaged, according to the advisory body Natural England.

Increased access to nature is among the aims set out in the new plans.

Using landscapes in the fight against climate change are also central to the aims, along with protecting biodiversity and supporting people’s health and wellbeing for the next 70 years and beyond.

Mr Eustice said: “These reforms will play a pivotal role in meeting our international commitment to protect 30% of land for biodiversity by 2030.”

The government has also pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 as part of its 25-Year Environment Plan.

The empty brown fields of England’s winter countryside could be transformed under government plans for farming.

Cold naked acres will in future be clothed in vegetation as farmers are paid for sowing plants that bind the soil together.

The aim is to hold precious topsoil on the land, instead of seeing it washed into rivers during heavy rainfall.

But critics say it is not ambitious enough to reverse the UK’s nature crisis.

The changes are being introduced as part of a broad post-Brexit reform of the subsidies paid to farmers.

Under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, farmers received taxpayers’ cash proportional to the amount of land they owned – the richer the farmer, the bigger the subsidy.

Walks taken by people in UK woodlands save £185m a year in mental health costs, according to a report.

Spending time in nature is known to boost mental health, but the report by Forest Research is the first to estimate the amount that woodlands save the NHS through fewer GP visits and prescriptions, reduced hospital and social service care, and the costs of lost days of work. The research also calculated that street trees in towns and cities cut an additional £16m a year from antidepressant costs.

The researchers believe the true savings are likely to be significantly higher. The report shows the importance of woodlands, they said, which the government is already aiming to expand to tackle the climate and wildlife crises.

The coronavirus pandemic has increased the prevalence of mental illness, and the NHS was already increasing its spending on treatments. This includes green social prescribing, where activities including nature visits are used to help sufferers. In polling by Forest Research, more than 90% of respondents said woodlands were important to them in reducing stress.