Environmental Improvement Plan 2023

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Critiqued the Government's environmental track record, highlighting sewage spills and regulatory resource cuts. Questioned the five-year assessment delay for SSSIs, lack of species reintroduction plans, reliance on ELMs, and stance on EU retained laws.

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Asked about improving plastic waste export situation through extended producer responsibility (EPR) reforms and setting a date for phasing out plastic waste exports to countries with lower standards.

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Questioned consistency of environmental policy-making given recent neonicotinoid pesticide authorisations, despite expert committee concerns.

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I warmly welcome the incredible amount of work that the Secretary of State and her team, fresh into post, have put into the five-year environmental improvement plan. This is a holistic, comprehensive update of the 25-year environment plan, and it introduces for the first time a whole slew of targets and interim targets on the journey to where we wish to get to in the next 20 years.

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Yesterday I introduced the Clean Air Bill, which would require us to reach World Health Organisation air quality standards for PM2.5 of 10 micrograms per cubic metre by 2030, in alignment with the ambition of the EU. Yet today, five years into the 25-year plan, the Secretary of State comes along and extends that another 10 years to 2040. How many extra avoidable lives will be lost due to that? What will she do to bring forward that target to 2030?

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May I say a huge thank you to my right hon. Friend and extend a big, grateful Herefordshire hug to her for this excellent plan? Will she meet me to discuss the Environment Agency’s permitting department, which I believe is struggling, the rivers Lugg and Wye, and how we will deliver through the work that farmers do?

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I want to declare an interest: I am a trustee of the small charity, Fields in Trust, that works with some local authorities in trying to achieve the target of no household being more than 15 minutes away from green space. Before Christmas, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities introduced a consultation on changes to the national planning policy framework requiring major urban areas to have a 35% uplift to their house building targets. If in implementing that uplift authorities find that they cannot deliver the Government’s target of everyone being within 15 minutes of green space, do they follow the uplift or follow the aspiration on green space?

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I thank my right hon. Friend for her statement. In my constituency, we have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of storm overflows released on to our beautiful beaches. Analysis has shown that the only way to completely eliminate sewage overflows is to dig up and replace 60,000 miles of old pipes with two separated systems or build the equivalent of 40,000 Olympic swimming pools of storage. Does my right hon. Friend know which option the Lib Dems claim they would deliver?

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The Government’s own regulator, the Office for Environmental Protection, has found that this Government are seriously failing on every one of the goals set out in their own 25-year environment plan. What are the Government going to do differently in order to deliver these commitments?

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There are very many farmers in my constituency who love the Kentish countryside and are proud to be custodians of it for this generation. At the same time, they have to run profitable businesses, producing and selling good, healthy food. Can my right hon. Friend assure me and them that the new scheme has enough strength behind it to enable them to run viable businesses and to continue to protect and enhance Kent’s beautiful countryside?

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The Office for Environmental Protection highlighted the need for better alignment and coordination at all levels of government, including Whitehall. How will the Secretary of State ensure that these plans are delivered across Whitehall? Does she have the clout and backing of the Treasury?

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The Secretary of State is urged to ensure the delivery of manifesto targets such as 13,000 hectares of tree planting each year and halting species decline by 2030.

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With cuts to farmers' basic payments, how will the Government support those forced out of business to deliver environmental improvements?

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How will the actions taken by the Secretary of State further reduce sewage and dangerous chemicals pumped into rivers like the River Medway?

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Is there a plan to introduce swift bricks in buildings despite them not being included in the current environmental improvement plan?

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Will the Secretary of State back a campaign to give accredited bathing water quality status to the River Nidd at the lido in Knaresborough?

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What discussions have taken place with officials from DAERA to ensure protection of 30% of land and sea, including through marine protected areas, is extended to Northern Ireland?

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Does my right hon. Friend agree that claims by Opposition parties about 15 more years of sewage dumping are false and a bit rich?

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I warmly congratulate my right hon. Friend and her team on today’s announcement of the plan. Devon’s farmers produce some of the best food and drink in the world; I should know, having sampled a fair bit of it. They are custodians of our countryside and have been for generations, and we owe them a debt of gratitude and certainty. Will my right hon. Friend explain how this plan will help them to go on producing fantastic food throughout the south-west?

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I thank the Secretary of State, and the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow), for the tremendously hard work they have put into developing this world-leading environmental improvement plan. Local residents in the Kettering constituency are keen to support any measures to protect, preserve or enhance our natural environment. Does my right hon. Friend agree that (a) nature has been neglected for far too long, (b) environmental and agricultural policies were returned to this country as a result of Brexit, and (c) she is drawing on (b) to fix (a) so that we can clean our waters, tackle air pollution and increase biodiversity?

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Going back to the Victorian era when the water companies were putting in their pipes, they did not take action on sewage overflow. Perhaps they should have. In the 13 years that the Labour Government were in office, they took no action on sewage overflow. Perhaps they should have. This Government are taking action on sewage overflow, but doing so will cost tens of billions of pounds of investment. Therefore, does my right hon. Friend agree that it is right to work within the constructs of this environmental plan and other environmental plans to achieve that long-term change?

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I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. The Secretary of State will know that the packaging sector and its customers welcome the measures in the plan to reduce littering and increase recycling rates. Does she agree that they will be at their most effective if they are introduced consistently and at the same time across all countries of the UK?

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I was pleased to see that the environmental improvement plan included the Lapwing estate near Bawtry, which is on the border of Rother Valley, as a case study. This 5,000-acre piece of land will abate emissions, store carbon and produce food. It is funded partly by the Government. Can the Secretary of State confirm that she will continue to fund such projects across South Yorkshire and in Rother Valley to store our carbon, secure our food supplies and support our local rural communities?