Tag: George Eustice

The statement made by George Eustice, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the House of Commons on 31 March 2022.

The Secretary of State is setting out the budget for the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) for the financial year 2022-23 and an indicative budget for five years which will be protected by DEFRA within this spending review period. This will ensure the OEP has sufficient funds to carry out its statutory functions in England and gives greater certainty to the OEP over its long-term finances with which to plan its activities. The Northern Ireland contribution to the OEP’s budget, reflecting the additional cost of the OEP’s functions in Northern Ireland, is subject to ongoing discussion and will be confirmed in due course.

Following DEFRA’s internal assurance of the budget allocation, the OEP will receive:

In 2022-23: a ring-fenced baseline budget of £7,108,583, and additional funding of £4,364,366, totalling £11,472,949

In 2023-24: a ring-fenced baseline budget of £7,250,755

In 2024-25: a ring-fenced baseline budget of £7,395,770

The indicative baseline budget for 2025-26 is £7,543,685 and for 2026-27 is £7,694,559.

The total funding of £11.47 million for the upcoming financial year includes an additional £4.36 million to support the OEP’s establishment costs. The 2022-23 baseline budget of £7.11 million to cover ongoing operational costs and the exercise of the OEP’s statutory functions will increase year on year allowing for inflation, forming the five-year indicative budget.

The OEP’s baseline budget is ring fenced for the duration of the spending review period and the OEP will not be subject to savings. As with the use of any public funds, we expect the OEP to manage its budget with a high standard of probity, declare in-year underspends and return any unspent funds to the Department.

Should the OEP be asked to undertake additional duties which increases the cost of undertaking its functions, the Secretary of State will ensure supplementary funding is available so that the OEP’s funding overall remains sufficient. Further, should the OEP identify additional needs in 2022-23 or future years it will be able to bid for supplementary funds through a bespoke budget allocation process.

DEFRA will also conduct a review within 18 months of the OEP being set up in line with Cabinet Office guidance regarding new arm’s length bodies. This will provide an early assessment of the effectiveness and long-term resource requirements of the body.

The comments made by George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, on 30 March 2022.

The significant rise in the cost of fertiliser is a reminder that we need to reduce our dependence on manufacturing processes dependent on gas. Many of the challenges we face in agriculture will require a fusion of new technology with conventional principles of good farm husbandry. The measures we have announced today are not the whole solution but will help farmers manage their nitrogen needs in the year ahead.

The statement made by George Eustice, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the House of Commons on 16 March 2022.

We are today launching our consultation on legally binding targets under the Environment Act to leave our environment in a better state than we found it. This includes a world-leading target to halt the decline of nature by 2030. This is our compass, spurring action of the scale required to address biodiversity loss. We are also proposing targets for air quality, water, trees, marine protected areas, biodiversity, and waste reduction and resource efficiency.

This goes beyond the legal minimum required under the Act and will support the delivery of many of the Government’s priorities, including to reach net zero by 2050, build resilience against the impacts of a changing climate, and level up all corners of the country.

In order to meet these targets, we must move the emphasis away from bureaucratic EU processes that have not done enough to moderate the pace of nature’s decline, and instead put in place the governance regime that can deliver nature’s recovery. That is why we are publishing a Green Paper today, setting out proposals to create a system which better reflects the latest science, has regard for our domestic species and habitats, and delivers nature recovery.

We have always said we will take a cautious and evidence-led approach to any reform. This Green Paper is the next step in setting out our ideas and gathering views to inform our approach.

Our protected sites and nutrient pollution

As set out in our 25 year environment plan, England’s protected sites are a vitally important part of this Government’s ambitious commitments on the environment, including delivering the target to halt species decline by 2030. Nutrient pollution is a particular problem for our freshwater habitats and estuaries. Increased levels of nutrients—especially nitrogen and phosphorus—can ultimately damage protected sites and the wildlife that live there.

Many of our most internationally important water bodies are designated as protected sites under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. Under the Habitats Regulations, competent authorities, such as local planning authorities and the Environment Agency, must assess the environmental impact of planning applications or local plans. As a result of these regulations and European case law, Natural England has advised that in areas where protected sites are in “unfavourable condition” due to nutrient pollution, Local planning authorities can only approve a project if they are certain it will have no negative effect on the protected site.

Following further work to understand the sources of site deterioration, Natural England has today issued updated advice and support to the 32 local planning authorities currently affected by nutrient pollution, as well as 42 new local planning authorities. So far this approach has too often been complex, time-consuming and costly to apply, and Government is clear that action is needed to make sure that we both deliver the homes and communities need and address pollution at source.

First, to help all local planning authorities affected to navigate this requirement, Natural England has published a “nutrient calculator” to enable development to take place in a sustainable way. The Government is offering £100,000 to each affected catchment to support cross-local authority work to meet Natural England requirements and enable development to continue.

These solutions are pragmatic short-term steps but do not amount to a permanent solution that will improve water quality and allow sustainable development to proceed, and so we are going further. The Government already has highly ambitious plans to reduce nutrient pollution from both agriculture and sewage works and has further plans for the future. We have also secured a series of pledges from water companies to provide new funding for nature-based “strategic solutions” to tackle nutrient pollution. We welcome the new and proactive investment from Severn Trent Water, United Utilities, South West Water and Yorkshire Water in collectively investing an additional £24.5 million in reducing nutrient pollution affecting these sites, including nature-based solutions. We will work with the wider industry to deliver further action, as far as possible.

Finally, we will explore legislation to further strengthen requirements to reduce nutrients at source enabling more sustainable development. This will provide greater certainty for local authorities.

The comments made by George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, on 6 January 2022.

We want to see profitable farming businesses producing nutritious food, underpinning a growing rural economy, where nature is recovering and people have better access to it.

Through our new schemes, we are going to work with farmers and land managers to halt the decline in species, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, increase woodland, improve water and air quality and create more space for nature.

We are building these schemes together, and we are already working with over 3,000 farmers across the sector to test and trial our future approach. Farmers will be able to choose which scheme or combination of schemes works best for their business, and we will support them to do so.

The comments made by George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, on 27 December 2021.

A year on from the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, a positive picture is emerging for our fishing industry.

Today, we are announcing a £65 million infrastructure scheme which will allow us to modernise ports and harbours and increase capacity and efficiency at processing facilities. A £10 million fund will encourage new entrants into the processing, catching and aquaculture sectors, and train and upskill those in the industry.

We are committed to levelling up coastal communities across the UK, and this marks a period of rejuvenation for our fishing industry.

The comments made by George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, on 22 December 2021.

We have now concluded negotiations with the EU, setting catch levels for 2022. As an independent coastal State, we entered discussions representing the interests of the entire UK fishing industry and have secured certainty for the incoming year.

The balanced agreement made today provides a strong foundation as we seek to deliver more sustainable fisheries management, as set out in our landmark Fisheries Act.

The comments made by George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, on 10 December 2021.

More animal species are now threatened with extinction than ever before in human history and we are appalled at the thought of hunters bringing back trophies and placing more pressure on some of our most iconic and endangered animals.

This would be one of the toughest bans in the world, and goes beyond our manifesto commitment, meaning we will be leading the way in protecting endangered animals and helping to strengthen and support long-term conservation.

The statement made by George Eustice, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the House of Commons on 2 December 2021.

We are almost one year into the agricultural transition. Farming in England is moving away from the arbitrary land-based subsidies and top-down bureaucracy that epitomised the EU era, towards schemes that recognise the work that farmers do as stewards of our natural environment. Our reforms will support productive and profitable farming and food production alongside environmental, climate and animal welfare outcomes.

Since January, we have increased the money going to countryside stewardship and seen a 40% increase in applications compared with the previous years, launched the farming in protected landscapes scheme, consulted on a voluntary exit scheme, launched the farming investment fund to boost farm profitability and started a pilot of our new sustainable farming incentive.

I would like to update the House on the progress that we have made, working with English farmers to co-design our new systems and support the choices that they make for their own holdings. By the end of the transition, we expect spending to be evenly split across farm-level, locally tailored, and landscape-scale investment.

Sustainable farming incentive

The sustainable farming incentive will fund sustainable farming activities alongside food production, and it will eventually be open to all farmers. It will open in 2022 with the first payments being made before the end of the year. Today I am publishing more detail on how it will operate in 2022 and how the offer will be expanded from 2023 to 2025.

Local nature recovery

Local nature recovery is the improved and more ambitious successor to the existing countryside stewardship scheme. Its focus will be on making space for nature in the farmed landscape and the wider countryside. As with countryside stewardship, it will comprise a menu of options. The options will be broader and more ambitious, focusing on biodiversity, climate, water quality and other co-benefits alongside food production. It will fairly pay farmers for using perhaps less productive areas of their farms for those purposes. We will support collaboration between farmers such as in the way that cluster farms currently operate.

Landscape recovery

Landscape recovery will create at least 20,000 hectares of wilder landscapes, habitats, rewetted peat and afforestation at a landscape scale, and we are ambitious in going even further in harnessing our landscapes for the natural environment. This option will reward landowners or managers who want to take a more radical and large-scale approach to producing environmental and climate outcomes on their land. Industry engagement has confirmed that there is demand for this scheme, and we will launch the application process—and further details of this and the local nature recovery scheme— in the new year.

While we roll out our new schemes, we are encouraging farmers to enter into countryside stewardship. Today I am also confirming that we will be updating countryside stewardship payment rates from January 2022, which will be published in the new year. We will help farmers in countryside stewardship and other schemes make the transition to our new schemes from 2024 onwards.

We are also investing in animal health and welfare. The animal health and welfare pathway will drive continual improvement in farm animal health and welfare across our national flocks and herds.

I also want to set out the high-level environmental priorities for our programme: climate change mitigation and adaptation; species abundance; water quality; and soil health. Farmers and land managers are central to delivering these priorities, to reach our commitments in the net zero strategy and the statutory targets that will be set under the Environment Act 2021, including to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030.

We will set out high-level priorities and design incentives for actions that will contribute to them. Within this overall framework, it will be for farmers to choose how they want to get involved, whether that is by sparing small areas of unproductive land, changing to a more regenerative approach, or pursuing more radical land use change.

We will pay farmers for the actions that they take in these areas, and activities that provide co-benefits in other areas, such as building the resilience of the environment to climate change, improving air quality, natural flood management and coastal erosion risk mitigation. We will also continue to pay for heritage, access and engagement through our existing schemes and we will consider how to maintain investment in these areas as part of future schemes.