Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what additional financial assistance he plans to provide to (i) the National Trust, (ii) the RSPB, (iii) the Wildlife Trusts and (iv) other organisations to help them meet additional costs to prepare their sites and facilities for the lifting of some of the covid-19 lockdown restrictions on access to open spaces.

Environmental charities make a valuable contribution to the Government’s environmental agenda, through conservation of the natural environment; engaging people in the natural world; and providing access to our beautiful landscapes and coastlines. The Government will continue to work with these organisations on shared objectives during and after the Covid-19 outbreak.

There is no specific financial support available to environmental charities, including costs associated with re-opening sites and facilities. However, environmental charities may benefit from a number of the business support schemes the Government has launched. These include VAT deferrals, Small Business Grant Funding, business rates holidays for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, and the Job Retention Scheme (JRS). The JRS has already provided significant support to environmental charities, and is now being extended to the end of October. Full details of the unprecedented support the Government has made available are available at https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support.

In response to Covid-19 we have also relaxed some grant requirements and deadlines, and eased some regulatory requirements, to relieve some of the financial pressure on environmental charities.

On 13 May we published guidance to the public and to land managers on accessing the countryside and open space safely. This guidance was informed by discussions with environmental charities and organisations. We will continue to work with them closely on any issues arising from the current crisis.

The development of guidance for site managers is being led by the relevant experts, including officials from Natural England (NE), Environment Agency, and Forestry England, in the Visitor Safety Group (https://vscg.org/) and will be published next week.

Furthermore, NE has formed an operational group with environmental NGOs to discuss practical issues arising in managing nature reserves, conservation field staff and volunteers and issues surrounding survey and monitoring. This forum provides an opportunity to share good practice and to agree on joined-up messaging.