Environment Bill

Andy Carter Excerpts

Report stage & 3rd reading
Wednesday 26th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Olney (Richmond Park) (LD)]

I shall be seeking to press my amendment 29 to a vote.

I very much welcome this Environment Bill and many of the provisions that it makes. All over the country, we are suffering from severe environmental decline and degradation, and the results are visible in every community. From the damage to our chalk streams to the decline in our native wildlife species, the evidence of the impact of modern life on our natural environment is irrefutable. Nobody can fail to understand the implications of this decline.

A year or so ago, I attended a fascinating talk by the Kingston Beekeepers Association, which really enhanced my understanding of the essential role that bees play in maintaining the healthy plant life on which our human species depends, yet bees are among the species most threatened by modern industry, agriculture and housing development.

It is clear to everyone that much more needs to be done to strengthen powers at national and local level to prioritise the environment at every level of our decision making. As the decisions that have the most impact on our environment are made by our local authorities, especially around planning, it is vital that we enhance the powers that local government has to protect our environment.

I welcome the requirement in the Bill for every local authority to prepare a local nature recovery strategy to address the specific challenges in their own local environments. That will help to co-ordinate all local policy and decision making with an environmental impact by identifying and addressing the specific biodiversity challenges of individual areas. However, the Bill only requires local authorities to “have regard to” the LNRS. My amendment seeks to ensure that all local authorities must take the local nature recovery strategy into account when making decisions about planning or land use, as well as spending decisions.

We have seen successful trials of local nature recovery strategies in Buckinghamshire and other places. Buckinghamshire, in particular, is the site of many areas of vitally important woodland and chalk streams. We know that local people are deeply concerned about the degradation of those valuable natural assets and support the development of strategies that can combat environmental decline. It is essential that local authorities have the tools and powers that they need to be able to protect their communities.

I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Ham House, a National Trust owned property in my constituency, last Friday. The staff there talked me through the sustainable management of their grounds, including the adaptations that they have had to make to deal with climate change. The National Trust, as part of Greener UK, a coalition of environmental charities, supports my amendment. Like me, it recognises that the value of LNRSs can be realised only if they are properly applied to all aspects of decision making.

This Government have a record of delaying decisive action in the face of a looming crisis. They have an opportunity with this Environment Bill to learn from their past mistakes and pursue a course of action that is equal to the size of the challenge. None the less, the Bill needs to be strengthened by my amendment if it is to make the difference that we need to see.

[Andy Carter (Warrington South) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney).

The events of the past 12 months in particular have shown us the advantages of getting out and exploring nature on our doorstep. It is crucial, as we build back greener from the pandemic, that we take advantage of this opportunity to protect those green spaces and reflect on the world that we want to see for our children and their children.

I was very proud that this Government was elected on the strongest ever manifesto for the environment, and this Bill is critical to implementing that commitment. Central to this legislation is a commitment to leave the environment in a better state than when we found it. This is a world-leading measure that could be the net zero equivalent for nature. It is critical in our action to address biodiversity decline.

I am particularly pleased to see the commitment to tree planting in the Bill. I also welcome the introduction of local nature recovery strategies, which will allow us to map local assets and identify areas suitable for recovery.

Our changing climate is becoming associated with more extreme weather, higher risks of drought and an increase in flooding, which affected so many of the homes in my constituency in Sankey Bridges, in Heatley, and in Dallam and Bewsey during Storm Christoph in January.  The Minister was incredibly supportive and helpful during that time. Many local residents, though, are still not back in their homes, and are unlikely to be so anytime soon. Will my hon. Friend look at what more she could do to support those residents and Warrington Borough Council? I am very pleased that the Bill introduces additional requirements on water companies, enabling more resilient solutions.

Many of the environmental issues that we face have distinct local elements, and responding to challenges at a local level, in Warrington, not only allows for bespoke and more appropriate responses, but drives the potential for innovation. I want to mention air quality briefly. Warrington has historically had some of the worst air quality in the north-west of England, because of its location surrounded by motorways with high levels of congestion, and historically because of the location of a coal-fired power station at Fiddler’s Ferry. Now that has closed, and the air quality is already improving. My question to the Minister is, how can we leverage the Government’s nature target and commitment to improve air quality, not only in Warrington but across the UK, and given our presidency of COP, set out an ambition for a global improvement too? Finally, I welcome the work being undertaken by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust to protect some of our most vulnerable habitats locally, particularly through its peat free campaign.

The Bill will manage the impact of human activity on the environment. It creates a more sustainable and resilient economy and, critically, it engages our constituents and local government to improve environmental outcomes. I very much look forward to supporting it.

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

I want to speak to new clause 25, amendment 46 and amendment 22, which would cement in legislation forward-looking protections for trees, deforestation, species conservation and biodiversity gain.

We are in a climate and ecological emergency. Many of my Luton South constituents have contacted me deeply concerned about nature and biodiversity in the UK and across the world. The Bill was an opportunity to embed ambitious environmental protections in law and to kick-start a nature recovery ahead of COP26 and the convention on biological diversity, COP15.

The state of nature is very alarming. Wildlife in Britain is in freefall, with 44% of species in decline over the last 10 years. One in seven native British species are now at risk of extinction. UK tree planting targets were missed by over 50% in 2019-20, and across the world the World Wide Fund for Nature’s “Living Planet Report 2020” found that there had been an average 68% decline in the populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish since 1970.

So instead of a radical plan that shows global leadership in addressing the climate and nature crisis, the Government’s Bill dramatically falls short of what is needed. As the Environmental Audit Committee stated, the draft Bill

“is a missed opportunity for taking a holistic approach to environment and climate change, placing them at the heart of Government policy.”

I believe that the Government are resisting concrete, ambitious protections, so that our environment can be used as a bargaining chip that would undercut Britain’s environmental standards.

I hope that the Government will support the Opposition’s amendments that seek to enhance the protections in the Bill. We need the Government to publish a tree strategy for England, coupled with clear targets that would drastically increase woodland coverage, to protect and maintain new and restored existing woodlands. New clause 25 would ensure that the Government’s tree strategy was transparent about the protection, restoration and expansion of trees and woodland. As the planting of trees is a local issue as much as a global issue, will the Minister commit to ring-fencing a significant proportion of tree-planting grants of the £640 million Nature for Climate fund for local authorities, so that they can plant trees at scale and play their part in tackling the global crisis?

We also need the species conservation strategies to contribute to nature’s recovery. Amendment 46 would help deliver that, and could ensure that effective strategies are put in place to restore bees and other pollinator species and protect them from harmful pesticides. Amendment 22 would require the Government to commit to maintaining habitats that are secured under biodiversity gain in perpetuity, rather than the 30 years currently specified in the Bill. These amendments would embed sustained, forward-looking action in law to begin to reverse species decline and loss of species, and set nature on a path to recovery.

I look forward to hearing the Minister’s closing remarks.