Memorandum by English Nature and Natural
England (RG 102)
1. INTRODUCTION—NATURAL
ENGLAND
This response has been produced by English Nature.
English Nature is working with the Rural Development Service and
the Countryside Agency's Landscape, Access and Recreation division
to create Natural England a new agency for people, places and
nature.
Natural England is a new organisation which
is currently being established under the Natural Environment
and Rural Communities Act 2006. Natural England is being formed
by bringing together English Nature and parts of the Rural Development
Service and the Countryside Agency.
Natural England has been charged with the responsibility
to ensure that England's unique natural environment including
its flora and fauna, land and seascapes, geology and soils are
protected and improved.
Natural England's purpose as outlined in the
Act is:
"to ensure that the natural environment
is conserved, enhanced, and managed for the benefit of present
and future generations, thereby contributing to sustainable development".
STRATEGIC OUTCOMES
FOR NATURAL
ENGLAND
To achieve our purpose, Natural England has
defined four strategic outcomes which will provide the focus for
our activities and resources. The way in which these outcomes
link together to conserve and enhance the natural environment
is illustrated below.
To achieve these outcomes Natural England will:
— support individuals, organisations,
land managers and business to take action to conserve and enhance
the natural environment;
— increase the opportunities available
for people to make the natural environment an enriching part of
their every day lives;
— develop and promote sustainable solutions
to environmental problems at a national, regional and local level
and as a result increase the social and economic value provided
by the natural environment;
— bring together organisations and
individuals that influence and shape our environmental future,
to achieve long term conservation and enhancement of the natural
environment; and
— play a role in international efforts
to protect and enhance the natural environment through sharing
our expertise, advice and advocacy.
Natural England will do this by applying an
appropriate mix of advice, advocacy, incentives, regulation and
practical action according to the international, national, regional
and local challenges that the environment faces.
2. NATURAL ENGLAND
AND REGIONAL
GOVERNMENT
Natural England welcomes the opportunity to
respond to the questions posed by the ODPM Select Committee. Specific
responses to the questions posed by the Committee in their letter
of the 19 May to English Nature are contained in Annex 1.
Effective working relationships between Natural
England and the key regional bodies will be essential because
of their important role in the planning system, the promotion
of sustainable development, quality of life and wellbeing, economic
development and other aspects of regional and local delivery.
Natural England wants to ensure that the economic
and social value of the natural environment, as well as its intrinsic
value is recognised, protected and funded accordingly. This will
require Government Offices, Regional Assemblies and Regional Development
Agencies to be a collective positive force for the promotion of
Government policy on sustainable development and the natural environment.
Of particular importance is the influence they have with local
authorities and their responsibilities for the delivery of departmental
initiatives and funding streams (including Local Area Agreements)
and in the case of Government Offices and Regional Assemblies
their particular role in the planning system.
Natural England will work with regional bodies
to help interpret national policy and ensure that the natural
environment is given due weight in regional strategies. We will
develop and promote appropriate best-practice policies which reflect
our environmental remit, and which can be tailored to local circumstances.
Our engagement with the development of particular regional strategies
may vary between regions depending on circumstances, but we expect
to be a key player promoting the importance and benefits of the
natural environment wherever this is relevant.
Natural England recognises the importance of
the successful delivery of regional strategies that:
— Promote the achievement of integrated
environmental, social, and economic objectives (as required by
PPS1) rather than seeking to balance/trade these off against each
other.
— Provide the highest levels of protection
for England's most valued landscapes, habitats, sites and species—especially
those designated for their national or international importance
(as required by PPS9).
— Deliver well-designed, high quality,
locally distinctive, resource-efficient and environmentally sustainable
development which recognises the contribution of the natural environment
to a high quality of life and to the needs of existing and future
communities (ie distinctive, inspirational, well-managed and accessible
landscapes and greenspaces, close to where people work, which
also support a wealth and diversity of wildlife).
— Protect and enhance the natural environment
through the wise use of natural resources; reduce risks to and
arising from the environment (eg related to climate change) and
seek to maintain and enhance the physical, biological and land
management processes needed to sustain the character and viability
of England's landscapes, biodiversity, geology and soils.
Annex 1. Specific responses to questions
posed by the Committee
What formal mechanisms exist for English Nature
to be consulted on strategy development and policy implementation
by the Government Offices for the Regions, the RDAs and the Regional
Assemblies (as appropriate)? What formal mechanisms have been
established for consultation between Natural England and these
institutions?
As yet no formal mechanisms have been established
for consultation between Natural England and Government Offices,
RDAs or Regional Assemblies. Natural England will inherit statutory
consultee roles from English Nature and the Countryside Agency,
and so will be formally consulted on RSS, RES and National Park/AONB
Management Plans.
No formal mechanisms exist whereby Government
Offices consult English Nature on strategy development or policy
formulation, although in practice we are regularly consulted on
relevant strategies, and often involved in working groups alongside
Government Office representatives (eg RSS thematic groups, Regional
Strategies for Farming and Food).
As a statutory consultee in the spatial planning
process, we are formally consulted on Regional Spatial Strategies
(RSS—which include Regional Transport Strategies) by Regional
Assemblies as the Regional Planning Body. As a statutory consultation
body for the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive (SEA),
we are consulted on the combined SEA/Sustainability Appraisal
process for RSS, and by the RDAs on Regional Economic Strategies.
SEA consultation happens at different stages of strategy development,
including screening, scoping stages and as part of wider consultation
on the Environmental Report.
How is English Nature involved informally in strategy
development and policy implementation at the regional level?
As the Government's adviser on nature conservation,
we have in practice, and in every region been heavily involved
in the development of RSS, Regional Sustainable Development Frameworks/Integrated
Regional Strategies, and (where they exist) Regional Environment/Biodiversity
Strategies. Our involvement has been as statutory consultee where
appropriate, and through a variety of thematic working groups,
project groups, or as technical advisers. Involvement in Regional
Economic Strategies has not always been as significant, although
with the increasing emphasis on sustainable development by Regional
Development Agencies, and the adoption of SEA, there are some
good examples of cooperative working.
Can you give examples where your input at the
regional level has resulted in a change of strategy or implementation?
English Nature generally works in partnership
or close association with other environmental agencies and NGOs,
and only rarely can a change in a regional strategy be attributed
to specific contributions of any given agency or body. We are
aware however of numerous examples of strategies which incorporate
some of the ideas which we have promoted with other environmental
bodies (sometimes in modified form).
For example:
RPG8 in the East Midlands includes positive
policies on green infrastructure largely as a result of a joint
submission by environmental bodies, led by English Nature.
The Examination in Public of RSS14 included
lengthy discussion about the concept of environmental limits led
by English Nature and the Countryside Agency, and we expect this
thinking to influence the framing of some of the RSS policies.
"Nature Maps" or "Biodiversity
Opportunity Maps" have been adopted or considered for adoption
in a number of RSS, as a result of promotion by environmental
bodies, including Wildlife Trusts and English Nature.
The "Economic and Regenerative Value of
the North East's Environment" (ERVNE) project in the North
East involved joint working between the RDA and environmental
bodies to identify large environmental projects which also have
significant socio-economic benefits, and which has been reflected
in the RES, and led to a prioritisation process for RDA funding
of such projects.
Would English Nature welcome a greater degree
of involvement in regional strategy development and policy implementation?
If so, what form should it take?
As described, English Nature is already heavily
involved in the development of most relevant regional strategies
and policies, and we do not generally feel the need for any greater
degree of involvement.
Natural England expects to be a key regional
player, and to be involved in the development of all relevant
regional strategies. As a body with a wider remit than English
Nature, Natural England will expect to have a greater degree of
involvement both as statutory consultee and through a range of
other mechanisms.
Would English Nature support the development of
statutory regional environment strategies (as suggested by the
Wildlife Trusts)?
We would not support the idea of statutory regional
environment strategies. The environment is an important aspect
of sustainable development, which should be a cross-cutting theme
reflected in every regional strategy. The danger of having statutory
regional environment strategies is that the environment would
then receive less attention in other regional strategies, and
so not be given appropriate consideration.
The Wildlife Trusts also told the Committee (Q235)
that it perceived a need for specific targets to be attached to
positive environmental outcomes at the regional level (for example,
in the RDA Tasking Framework), to enable the regions to give weight
to environmental and economic concerns. Does English Nature agree?
We agree that targets can be a powerful mechanism
for directing action but they can also lead to action being narrowly
focused on the achievement of the specific target to the exclusion
of wider environmental outcomes.
Most environmental issues vary considerably
from region to region, and even within regions, it would not be
appropriate to prescribe a set of national regional environment
targets. In practice many environmental targets already exist
(eg Defra PSA targets on farmland birds and SSSI condition; Biodiversity
Action Plan targets), some of which have already been disaggregated
to a regional scale. Some Regional Planning Guidance and RSS for
example already recognise Regional BAP targets.
A greater priority than specific environmental
targets in (say) RDA Tasking Frameworks, is to have positive policies
for all Government-funded regional bodies to contribute to the
achievement of government policy on sustainable development, biodiversity
and geology. This is already the case for Regional Assemblies
in their role as Regional Planning Body (PPS1 Planning for sustainable
development, and PPS9 Planning for biodiversity and geological
conservation. All public bodies will from October 2006 have a
duty to have regard to the importance of conserving biodiversity
through the NERC Act. The recently published Defra/DTI/ODPM report
Securing the Regions' Futures—strengthening delivery of
sustainable development in the English Regions (April 2006) also
indicates a stronger more positive role in the promotion of sustainable
development for Government Offices, RDAs and Regional Assemblies.
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