Memorandum by The Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds (RSPB) (RG 37)
INTRODUCTION
1. The RSPB is actively involved in the
English Regions, working with Regional Assemblies, Regional Development
Agencies, regional environment and biodiversity forums and other
regional fora. Through our activities we also deliver projects
that benefit local communities, support local economies, and help
to provide a healthy environment rich in birds and wildlife.
2. We believe that regions have a crucial
part to play in promoting and encouraging sustainable development.
Working together, regional bodies can stimulate action at regional,
sub-regional and local levels which are key to delivering many
of the policies in the UK sustainable development strategy. The
essential functions for this to happen include: leadership, coordinated
delivery, financial resources and feedback on performance to help
shape future policies.
3. Some progress has been made on the delivery
of sustainable development, but there is still much room for improvement.
The RSPB strongly urges the Government to support the all recommendations
of the Sustainable Development Commission, as set out in their
recent report "The next steps". In parallel with their
findings, our experience in the regions is that there is:
(i) a need for stronger leadership and accountability
at a regional level for sustainable development;
(ii) no clear mechanism for delivery of sustainable
development targets;
(iii) not enough data on regional progress
towards meeting sustainable development targets.
LEADERSHIP
4. All regional bodies—Regional Assemblies
(RAs), Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), Government Offices
(GOs)—and other public, private and voluntary organisations
have a key role in the implementation of the UK Sustainable Development
Strategy. This means placing sustainable development at the heart
of their activities and working together in partnership.
5. The RSPB believes that currently, there
is a lack of consistent leadership on sustainable development
across the English regions. RAs, RDAs and GOs need more clearly
defined responsibilities for sustainable development; for example,
RAs and GOs should have sustainable development as their primary
purpose. A key task is to ensure policy alignment between
national and regional levels—and fewer regional strategies.
All regional government institutions should develop a proper
accountability framework setting out:
(i) the business case for sustainable development;
(ii) targets and out puts for all levels
of the organisation; and
(iii) clear indicators of successful delivery
(ensuring regular monitoring and reporting).
Responsibility for sustainable development must
be embedded at the highest level, ensuring a network of champions
from board level and down through each organisation.
6. Regional Assemblies need mechanisms to
give stakeholder members a genuine voice. Our experience has been
that more value has been placed on input from economic and social
partners at the expense of environmental interests (see case study
from the North West).
Case study: environmental voice in the North West
7. A key challenge that the environment sector is facing in the North West is getting meaningful representation in the Regional Assembly. The environment sector is represented by North West Environmental Link which has two seats on the Economic and Social Partnership (ESP) group (RSPB holds one of these seats). However, over the last 12 months the environment sector has been marginalised within ESP. The balance of seats, both on the Executive Group of ESP and within ESP, lies strongly in favour of the business sector leaving both the environmental and social sectors poorly represented.
8. The recent letter from Rt Hon David Miliband MP, Minister of Communities and Local Government, regarding the make-up of RAs (that they should be at least 60% Local Authorities and at least 30% ESP) has been useful for improving the balance between Local Authorities and ESPs. However, further refinement is needed to create a better economic, environment and social mix within the ESP. Some regions call this group "Economic, Environment and Social Partners" to ensure that the environment is given a higher profile. Consistency in naming of this group would be helpful.
9. There is also a need for more business "buy-in" into the philosophy and delivery of sustainable development.
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COORDINATED DELIVERY
AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT ROUND
TABLES
10. Sustainable Development Round Tables (SDRTs) exist
in some form in each of the English Regions—except in the
North West, where Sustainability NorthWest (financed by the RDA
and the business community) is seen to fulfil this function. There
is no clear support for what SDRTs say or do; at the moment they
are listened to sporadically and where there is action it is not
consistent across the regions.
11. As identified by the Sustainable Development Commission,
SDRTs must be independent, to act as "critical friends"
to RAs, RDAs and GOs, scrutinising their policies, their performance
on sustainable development and providing advice on best practice.
They need:
(i) secure funding, sufficient to enable Round Tables
to work properly;
(ii) stakeholder driven membership, including influential
representatives from RAs, RDAs, GOs, public, private and voluntary
sectors;
(iii) continuity of service (ie. members sign up to a
term of office);
(iv) to be well networked amongst leaders of key organisations
and agencies within their region;
(v) to act as facilitators for the transfer of knowledge
and best practice between regions and externally.
COORDINATED DELIVERY
AND REGIONAL
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
FRAMEWORKS (RSDFS)
12. Regional Sustainable Development Frameworks (RSDFs)
are intended to provide a shared vision for sustainable development
and inform other regional strategies. In some regions this is
the case, but in general they lack influence and are rapidly being
bypassed by new Integrated Regional Strategies. The RSPB believes
that it is essential that Integrated Regional Strategies are audited
for sustainable development purposes and are nested within the
RSDF.
13. In some regions RSDFs are being updated and renamed
Integrated Regional Frameworks (easily confused with Integrated
Regional Strategies). They are widely used as a basis for the
Sustainability Appraisal of strategies and projects. Indeed sub-regions
in the North East welcomed their Sustainable Development Round
Table's RSDF and the road-show which explained the use of an integrated
matrix which could be used to start the process of Sustainability
Appraisal.
14. The RSPB supports the use of RSDFs for sustainability
appraisal as long as they are kept up-to-date and where this takes
into account guidance from the Sustainable Development Commission
on the development of sustainability appraisal tools.
COORDINATED DELIVERY
AT A
SUB-REGIONAL
LEVEL
15. Sustainable development must be delivered at the
appropriate regional/local level. Action plans produced by Local
Strategic Partnerships must be checked against the RSDF (or Integrated
Regional Framework) with as much rigour as the county or regional
plans in order to avoid inappropriate trade-offs at a local level.
The regional governance structure must ensure that all decisions
are made in a measured or integrated "big picture" fashion.
16. In some cases it is necessary to look across sub-regional
boundaries (eg.considering them as sub-economic units divided
by a political boundary) in order to tackle economic, social and
environmental disparities in a joined-up fashion. For example
in the East of England, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft are neighbouring
towns that share many of the same development problems, but they
lie on either side of the county boundary. Sustainable development
policies have had to be integrated into two local action plans,
one in Suffolk and one in Norfolk, often with very different results.
MONITORING OUTCOMES
17. Currently this information on regional progress towards
meeting sustainable development targets is either insufficient
or non-existent—when compared, for example, to RDA reporting
on regional economic performance against Regional Economic Strategies.
There is a pressing need for regional sustainable development
indicators and national strategy indicators (ensuring link-up
between the two). Regions must have properly funded monitoring
systems, must agree the purpose of indicators, how they will be
measured and assessed. Regional government institutions must also
have an agreed commitment to take remedial action against negative
trends.
18. Regional Observatories and the National Audit Office
should produce an annual "State of the Region" report—based
on sustainable development outcomes—to provide an overview
of regional progress.
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