The Land Trust welcomes the Environmental Audit Committee’s call for new protections amid EU negotiations

The House of Common’s Environmental Audit Committee today published its report expressing its concerns that unless Government introduces a new Environmental Protection Act during Article 50 negotiations, the quality of the UK’s environment will be under threat.

The Land Trust submitted written evidence into the inquiry last year, emphasising that any financial incentives and protection measures should be focused on sustainable land management. This would help to restore and improve the natural environment, which provides so many important services and benefits to society, including flood protection, food production and biodiversity.

The Land Trust welcomes the committee’s report, particularly its recognition of the manifesto commitment to “be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than it found it”.

To help achieve this, recommendations include:

• Any new farm subsidies which the Government introduces to replace the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should provide a better balance between support to agriculture and environmental protection. New subsidies should have clearly defined objectives linked to the delivery of public goods, like the promotion of biodiversity, preventing flooding and storing carbon, rather than simply providing income support to farmers.
• The Government must, before triggering Article 50, commit to legislating for a new Environmental Protection Act, ensuring that the UK has an equivalent or better level of environmental protection as in the EU.
• A new Environmental Protection Act to maintain and enforce environmental standards after we leave. This is needed to ensure environmental standards are not weakened when we leave the EU.
• EU legislation underpins much of the UK’s environmental protections. The Government needs to ensure that it maintains the strength and range of protection given to the UK’s most valuable wildlife sites.

For further details and to see the recommendations in full, visit: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/environmental-audit-committee/news-parliament-2015/natural-environment-after-eu-report-published-16-17/