Environmental Targets (Public Authorities) Bill [HL]

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle Excerpts

Friday 18th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Krebs. I thank him for bringing forward this terribly important Bill. I also thank Wildlife and Countryside Link, Green Alliance and Climate Action for their comprehensive briefings on it. This is not what you always see on a Private Member’s Bill, when you think of the weight of backing that represents.

To encourage the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, although there is no doubt that the graveyard slot means that we do not have the numbers we might have had, a recent headline from Scientific American noted that

“graveyards are surprising hotspots for biodiversity”.

So we can flower from this graveyard something rich, productive and great for the health and well-being of the country.

Ours is one of the most nature-depleted corners of this battered planet, as the public have increasingly come to understand over the past few years. There is a great deal of concern about the state of our rivers and seas, but there is also a growing understanding of the state of our peatlands, both uplands and lowlands. My social media feed sometimes seems to be entirely full of people desperately fighting to protect an ancient tree that is not only very valuable to a community but an absolute hotspot for biodiversity.

There is huge public concern to deliver on the Climate Change Act 2008 and the Environment Act 2021, but as the noble Lord has already set out, it is patently obvious that we are not seeing delivery. Any one Act of Parliament, or action, cannot possibly deliver that. This week I attended, along with many other Members of your Lordships’ House, an event focused on the much-promised land use framework, which is among the other things we desperately need. Also, our Treasury needs to be given not a target for GDP growth but something like the New Zealand living standards framework, so that the environment is at the absolute heart of everything it does.

None the less, as the noble Lord has already set out, we have a whole set of bodies which are absolutely crucial to getting us moving in the right direction, at least, for our climate and nature targets, but they are not currently equipped to do so. They do not have the statutory framework to make this happen, and that is essentially what the Bill provides.

Let us consider the evidence. Under two recent Governments we have seen new oil and gas projects, new roads, airport expansion, and the destruction of ancient woodland and the valuable trees I talked about. As a vice-president of the Local Government Association, I stress the importance of local authorities being properly resourced to play their full part. They are not, and the Bill would help with that. The Green Party offers its strongest possible support for the Bill.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Blencathra (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as in the register. As an aside in relation to the previous Bill, as a former chair of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, I published a report on the appalling abuse of delegated powers by all Governments over the past 30 years. It is just as well that I was not replying for the Official Opposition, because I would have probably supported the Bill in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford.

When the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, proposes something, we should all pay close attention because he speaks from a position of great authority. We have all had in the past 24 hours—at least, Conservative Members have—a note from the Chief Whip reminding us of the proper appellations and how we should address people in this House. In this House, we have noble and gallant Members and noble and learned Members. I always thought we should have a category of noble and expert Members, of which the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, would be the prime example. I recall a debate during the gene editing Bill, when the noble Lord was making some important but totally inexplicable technical point about DNA with the noble Lord, Lord Winston. It was inexplicable to every other Peer present, as we had no idea what they were talking about.

On this occasion, I think I understand the thrust of the noble Lord’s argument. I worry about overreach and that it may detract from the core tasks some of these public bodies have. That is the fourth reason I would worry about the Bill, not that I necessarily support the other three reasons; I have no objection to them in principle.

Take national parks, about which I know a little. Legislation which has received universal support over the past 75 years gives them two purposes: conserving and enhancing the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the designated national parks, and promoting opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of those areas by the public. I must say to the noble Baroness, Lady Willis, that the national parks do not have an economic objective. In fact, one of the criticisms many of the national parks make is that they do not have that economic objective in their powers.

We all agree that national parks and AONBs, now called national landscapes, need to do more to recover wildlife and biodiversity. I have lived in the Lake District national park for many years and, as the Minister will agree, it is just as devoid of wildlife as the areas outside it, unlike US national parks. Recognising that, Defra introduced the grant scheme for farming and protected landscapes. It offers grants to farmers, provided that they deliver on climate change and biodiversity goals. They must support nature recovery and mitigate the impacts of climate change. They must provide opportunities for people to discover, enjoy and understand the landscape and its cultural heritage. They must protect or improve the quality and character of the landscape or place.

I suggest that these remain in sync with the national park aims and that we need to let these develop. Indeed, I would urge the Government to expand them before imposing the requirements in this Bill. I also suggest that the national parks will be out of their depth in trying to assist in meeting a target for particulate matter or air improvement. On water quality, we shall probably debate amendments to the water Bill on sewage in Lake Windermere, over which the national park has no control.

On local authorities, this House made some substantial changes via the Environment Act 2021 to amend the NERC Act 2006 to conserve and, now, enhance biodiversity. A public authority must consider what action it

“can properly take, consistently with the proper exercise of its functions, to further the general biodiversity objective”.

That objective, set out in the Act, is

“the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity in England”.

Section 104 of the 2021 Act creates local nature recovery strategies, and 48 designated “responsible authorities” are now developing such strategies, covering every inch of England. Every nature organisation agrees that this will be the greatest boost to wildlife recovery in our lifetime.

Noble Lords may say that takes care of the biodiversity targets, but what about climate change, water and air? To that I would say that many of the organisations listed here do not have the ability or competence to assist in meeting those targets. We spoke about the problems of water quality at Second Reading of the Water (Special Measures) Bill last week and will debate it in more detail in Committee, but the only organisations that can improve water quality are the water companies, the Coal Authority, which has a specific obligation, the Environment Agency and Ofwat. I see that Ofwat is listed in Clause 2(2)(i) as a public body which must

“take all reasonable steps to meet the environmental recovery objective”.

I think there was probably agreement from all sides of the House last week that Ofwat has failed in its relatively narrowly defined key regulatory role, and no one would trust it with any responsibilities on climate change adaption, air quality and biodiversity recovery.

I would have similar concerns if we gave all local authorities the duties under this Bill to assist with all the targets on climate change and the Environment Act. My concern is that many local authorities with no expertise in the targets in this Bill would be diverted into doing this badly instead of the day job. As we have seen, many local authorities have gone off on woke tracks in recent years. If given these duties they will, I am certain, merrily employ climate change, air and water quality officers, and our dustbins will not get emptied regularly and recycling rates will fall further behind.

Let us look at Ofgem’s priorities. They are:

“shaping a retail market that works for consumers … enabling infrastructure for net zero at pace … establishing an efficient, fair and flexible energy system”,

and

“advancing decarbonisation through low carbon energy and social schemes”.

Ofgem is already on board with the net-zero targets and, I suggest, would be at a loss to assist with air quality and biodiversity aims.

Take Great British Nuclear, which was created in 2023, not 100 years ago. It has as its objects

“to facilitate the design, construction, commissioning and operation of nuclear energy generation projects for the purpose of furthering any policies published by His Majesty’s government”.

I do not think you can make a better contribution to net zero than that.

I will not go through all the 28 organisations, but a final example is Network Rail, which has as its objective

“to get people and goods to where they need to be, and in turn to support the UK’s economic prosperity. Our role is to run a safe, reliable and efficient railway, serving our customers and communities. We oversee the running of the railway as an entire system and work closely with train operators to deliver train services as safely, reliably and punctually as possible. We lead the industry’s planning for the future of the railway, and we’re committed to a sustainability agenda”.

I say that with a straight face. I think we all have views on how well Network Rail has fulfilled its primary purpose, and I would dread to see it having the slightest responsibility for net-zero or biodiversity objectives.

I am glad that this building is not included because I have counted six oil heaters trying to boost the heating in this building, as our 150 year-old steam generators are not quite working yet. I am not sure what contribution we are making in this House to burning extra carbon and use of electricity.

I have spoken more about biodiversity and nature recovery than climate change—possibly inevitably, since I am, for the next two months, still the deputy chair of Natural England and a member of the board of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, both organisations listed in the Bill. I submit that those two organisations do not need these provisions to drive forward, within their areas of expertise, all the relevant targets. They are already leading the way.

I also believe that climate change and nature recovery are two sides of the same coin and that, if we restore our peatlands, which hold 3 billion tonnes of carbon, plant the right trees in the right places, conserve our sea-floor and keep carbon trapped there, and go for nature-friendly solutions, then we can avoid the excessive cost of going too far, too quickly on heat pumps, electric cars and getting rid of gas boilers, not to mention the appalling damage to our natural landscape caused by wind turbines and pylons.

Personally, I have always considered biodiversity loss to be more important than climate change. With enormous political will and an awful lot of money, climate change can be reversed, but once a species is lost it is lost for ever, and the world is losing species at an alarming rate.

In Committee, I will judge the Bill by what these 28 public bodies can legitimately do, without detracting from their core duties, to increase species abundance and recover nature. I believe that that is the top priority and the key to unlocking climate change improvements and water quality. I wish the noble Lord well with his Bill, and I look forward to hearing the Government’s response to it.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

Before the noble Lord sits down, for clarification, he appears to be suggesting that climate change and nature have to exist in certain silos and that getting people around the country by rail is a different and entirely separate silo. Do I take it from that that His Majesty’s Opposition’s position is that we should not mainstream climate and nature across all areas of action of government and public bodies?

[Lord Blencathra (Con)]

Of course we want to “mainstream” it, but I am suggesting that some of the Bill may be overreach for some of the authorities and that they may not be competent to do it. I am not making any argument that it may be too costly, but we must try to achieve our targets on climate change reduction and in the Environment Act by the measures that the last Government took and that the current Government plan to take. I would be rather worried if we gave additional powers in the Bill to some of those authorities, but I remain to be convinced in Committee. I am sort of neutral on the Bill, and I respect the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, in his ability. In Committee, we can explore the points the noble Baroness raises.

Rural Communities

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, I declare my position as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, for securing this important debate and for highlighting in her introduction the environmental, social and community destruction threatened by electricity pylon transmission ploughing through the countryside—something my honourable friend Adrian Ramsay, the MP for Waveney Valley, has very much focused on.

That is an illustration of a much broader issue: that the relationship between the countryside and urban areas is very often an extractive one. Public goods, whether electricity or food, are produced in rural areas, and then the benefits are carried by urban areas and the costs continue to be borne by the rural areas.

We have this idea of rural areas as a green paradise: idyllic ancient oaks, babbling brooks, green meadows, chocolate-box villages—the picture-postcard countryside described by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Dillington. I will focus on the ways in which it can continue to look like that, yet sometimes the reality is deeply unhealthy in terms of public health and environmental damage. I will focus on three issues: ammonia and phosphate pollution, pesticide use, and manufacturing and chemical contamination. These tend to be thought of as urban issues, but they are increasingly affecting rural areas.

I start with nitrogen and phosphate pollution. The number of intensive poultry units in England and Wales needs to halve in the next 25 years to save our rivers, says the Soil Association. Here are some figures that might shock your Lordships’ House: 1 billion chickens pass through intensive poultry units each year in England and Wales. You might say that this is traditional industry but, year on year for the past decade, the number of chickens has increased by 1 million birds every month. Associated with that is real environmental damage in rural areas, particularly in Lincolnshire, Norfolk and the counties around the River Wye. Norfolk has some of the most polluting poultry facilities in the country. The River Wye region is now a huge matter of public concern due to the amount of pollution caused by that.

Turning to pesticides, again, we do not really think very much about the public health aspects of these for rural areas. However, Defra figures from 2022 show that pesticide usage was similar to 2010 levels by volume or by weight, but that the pesticides we are using are becoming more toxic all the time. I credit a campaigner, Georgina Downs, who has been working on this issue for many years, with showing me videos of pesticide use in rural areas. We think of this as being out in the fields, but we see sprayers within literally a couple of feet of people’s front or bedroom windows. Pesticides are being sprayed up and down fields every few days, and rural dwellers face seeing that all the time.

Turning to manufacturing, just today, the Environment Agency said that it lacks the budget to address growing understanding of so-called “forever” chemicals—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. Areas where the problems are concentrated include the former RAF base at Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, Bentham in North Yorkshire, and Duxford in South Cambridgeshire. These issues are not confined to urban areas.

So, there are many public health issues, and then there is the issue of health services. Far too often, the health services that people in rural areas so urgently need are simply not available to them; and of course, there is often no public transport to get to health services in more urban areas. These are issues that other noble Lords have raised, and that the Government need to address.