Biodiversity and the Countryside

Baroness Young of Old Scone Excerpts

Thursday 13th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Young of Old Scone (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare my environmental interests as listed in the register. I am sure we all know that nature in this country is in serious decline, with species and habitats disappearing and only 33% of SSSIs in favourable condition, and they are the jewels in our nature conservation crown. Our rivers and seas are mostly in poor ecological condition, and we are one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. This is the inheritance of 70 years of undervaluation of nature. Since the Environment Act 2021, successive Governments have had legally binding targets to halt the decline of species abundance in England by 2030. The UK is also committed, under the global biodiversity framework, to manage 30% of the land and sea for nature by 2030. And there are other targets, but the Office for Environmental Protection has assessed that we are largely off-track to achieving these targets.

However, an awful lot is happening, and I am sure my noble friend the Minister will give a full picture of measures being taken by this Government: for example, the increased targeting of agricultural support payments to ensure public goods for public money; increased funding for environmental land management schemes; a commitment and plans to cease bottom trawling in MPAs where appropriate; plans for new national forests; improvements to the biodiversity net gain scheme; huge strides forward in reducing pollution and carbon through clean energy measures; clamping down on river and water body pollution; banning neonicotinoids; and pushing forward local nature recovery strategies. All those things are happening, but the turnaround of decades of harm is going to take longer than 16 months.

However, we have only five years to meet the 2030 targets. That is not going to be easy, since it often involves join-up across government departments for which biodiversity is something that they buy in the supermarket and they think is a washing powder. It is never going to be easy, so it is going to need extra-special effort. I shall focus today on three areas where we all need to put our shoulder to the wheel now to make the progress that we so desperately need. I am pleased to say that I am very much in agreement with many of the things the noble Lord, Lord Grayling, said, because this is not the time for scoring party-political points; this is the time for getting on with the job.

My first point is about the Government reviewing and resetting the environmental improvement plan and resetting their targets. I ask my noble friend the Minister to assure the House that, where we are not on track for targets, the targets will not just be reduced. It is a time for efforts up, not targets down. An example is that the tree-planting targets are insufficient. They are not even being met, but they could be—there is no problem with meeting them if we make sufficient of the right efforts—so to reduce the targets would be a travesty of ambition.

Secondly, if we leave to one side the problem of our seas, much of our terrestrial biodiversity loss comes from the way that land is managed. It is managed for all sorts of purposes—food and farming, climate, flood-risk management, water quality, sustainable soils, human health and well-being, development, growth and jobs. I welcome the recent update that has been circulated from Minister Creagh on the land use framework: a framework to encourage rational decision-making about land at national, regional and local level. I hate to introduce a note of political dissent, but the Conservative Government promised the framework by Christmas 2021, then again for Christmas 2022 and then again for Christmas 2023.

I am aware of a huge amount of progress having been made behind the scenes, but it would be good to get from my noble friend the Minister her best estimate of the publication date and the process of implementing the land use framework, because it is urgent. Already, spatial plans are being developed by regional mayoral authorities, government departments and local authorities on issues such as housing, infrastructure, transport and energy, and individual landowners are making day-to-day decisions and choices that will last for many years.

In the post-war settlement, the Labour Government magnificently addressed capital, labour and land as the three pillars of economic recovery. In my view, it would be a fine thing for a new Labour Government to reset the economic importance of land at this stage, so I hope my noble friend the Minister can assure us that 2026 means January or February, not December.

Thirdly, I was sitting weeping gently as I ate my lunch, watching what was happening in the Commons this afternoon on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, because it has shown how distressingly easy it is to fall into the thinking that we can either have growth or we can have nature. But we are smarter than that: we can do both. There have been polarising statements about newts, bats and lizards. I bet there is not a single Member of this House present today who has actually seen a British lizard. If you have, come and see me later. Ah, the noble Lord, Lord Grayling, claims to have: very good, sir.

However, polarising statements about these species being a block to developments are simply not borne out by the data. For example, over five years, data across more than 50 local authorities under the current district licensing scheme for newts shows that fewer than 1% of planning applications had any newt issues at all, and all those that had newt issues were resolved within 10 days. All the evidence available shows that newts, as in this example, do not slow down or impede development.

This is borne out by information I extracted with difficulty from the Home Builders Federation recently. It put down its perception of the blockages and problems impeding development. It said the biggest barriers to development were viability, affordability, the absence of support for first-time buyers, local planning authority delays, and shortage of construction skills. There was only a small range of biodiversity issues on its list. So can the noble Baroness persuade others in government not to resort to nature bashing and polarising headlines?

I can see my Whip out of the corner of my eye telling me I have gone over time, but I have a commitment to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich, who asked me, since he could not be with us today, to talk about his amendment to achieve protection for chalk streams. It was supported on Report and will no doubt figure at ping-pong, but he has asked me to ask the Minister very nicely if she would include it in the Bill. I applaud my noble friend Lady Hayman for her knowledge, willingness to listen and commitment to reaching agreements. It is refreshing to work with her.