Thank you for contacting me about nature.
Nature is at the foundation of food production, water security, and is critical to our economy, and our mental and physical health. It is why it is so important to deliver on our commitment to halt the decline of nature.
The previous Conservative Government created or restored wildlife habitats the size of Dorset, established 100 Marine Protected Areas across 35,000 square miles of English waters, and passed the Environment Act to restore nature.
Under the last government, over 15 million trees were planted, more trees than in any other decade, and a range of measures were introduced to reduce single-use plastics. This included introducing a charge for single-use carrier bags in 2015. As a result, sales of single-use plastic carrier bags sold by the main supermarket retailers have fallen by almost 98 per cent, a reduction from 7.6 billion bags in 2014 to 164 million in 2024/25.
It is important that the new Government builds on this work. The National Trust's nature campaign, its first campaign of this kind in 15 years, demonstrates the depth of concern, however, that the new Government is rowing back on its commitment for nature.
One evidence of this was when the Government suddenly closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) last March with no warning. As custodians of more than 70 per cent of our countryside, farmers play a vital role in protecting and enhancing nature. This is why the SFI scheme pays farmers for carrying out a number of measures that support nature. The abrupt closure to the scheme, however, has harmed confidence and left many farmers facing severe cash flow issues whilst they wait for the new scheme to open in July. This is not only detrimental to the farming industry which has seen a record closures due to numerous government policies attacking family farms it also harms nature recovery.
I share your desire for clean water and waterways because sewage in our rivers is unacceptable. The only reason we now know the real scale of the problem is because, under the last Government, monitoring of storm overflows was increased to 100 per cent in 2023, up from 7 per cent in 2010 when Labour were last in power. The previous Government also introduced the Water Restoration Fund, a ring-fenced fund comprised of the fines and penalties paid by water companies with the specific purpose of improving the water environment. Disappointingly, the Government voted against the Opposition's amendment to put the fund on a statutory footing. The Government must act with more urgency to clean up our waterways.
I am also extremely concerned that the Government is insisting on tarmacking over the green belt, despite the critical role it plays for nature, biodiversity, leisure, sports facilities and the vital role it plays for agriculture. Nature and the green belt are fundamental to the lives of our communities, but the Government does not agree.
My colleagues in the Shadow Housing, Communities and Local Government team, led by Sir James Cleverly MP, worked across both houses to push the Government to change course on the Planning and Infrastructure Act. Ultimately, however, the Act fails in the eyes of lovers of nature. The Act provides little clarity about how its measures will support the ambitions to balance the delivery of new homes and infrastructure with the needs to protect the natural environment and the Green Belt that we all love.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
