Written evidence from the Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust welcomes the opportunity
to submit evidence to this inquiry. The Trust is the UK's leading
woodland conservation charity. We have three aims: to enable the
creation of more native woods and places rich in trees; to protect
native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future; to inspire
everyone to enjoy and value woods and trees. We own over 1,000
sites and have 300,000 members and supporters.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
— Creating new native woods and planting
trees offers genuine value for money at a time when the national
finances are under severe pressure. As woods and trees deliver
on so many policy agendas simultaneously the Local Enterprise
Partnerships should be tasked with engaging conservation NGOs
such as the Woodland Trust to ensure that the environmental and
social concerns are given equal priority to economic growth. One
example of a genuinely cross cutting action is woodland creation
which, as the Read Report demonstrated, provides a cost effective
method of abating carbon and also delivers a range of other benefits
such as mitigating flooding and improving air quality.1
— Charities such as the Trust are sizeable
business entities in their own right and command experiences that
will be useful in the discussions on economic, social and environmental
regeneration.
— The Local Enterprise Partnerships should
not be given any planning powers once held by regional and local
government as it risks undermining the notion of a planning system
that is democratically accountable and able to integrate environmental,
social and economic concerns. Passing planning powers to the Local
Enterprise Partnerships would also appear to contradict the Coalition's
commitment to "return decision-making powers on housing and
planning to local councils".2
— Many of the issues faced by the Local
Enterprise Partnerships may affect more than one local authority
and so there is a need to create the appropriate mechanisms that
will enable co-operation across administrative boundaries.
THE FUNCTIONS
OF THE
NEW LOCAL
ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIPS
AND ENSURING
VALUE FOR
MONEY
1. Ensuring value for money will be a central
objective for the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). The Trust
believes that creating new native woods and planting trees is
not a luxury. Instead tree planting is an essential action in
developing green infrastructure that can deliver economic benefits
by mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, reducing
flood risk and improving water quality, aiding productive agriculture,
halting wildlife loss, enhancing public health and shaping places
where people want to live, work and spend their leisure time.
From an economic standpoint it should be noted that the timber
industry is estimated to employ about 55,000 people in Great Britain.3
In addition, the Read Report demonstrated how cost effective woodland
creation is as a carbon abatement tool for businesses and government:
Woodland creation provides highly cost-effective
and achievable abatement of GHG emissions when compared with potential
abatement options across other sectors. The Committee on Climate
Change considered that abatement costing less than £100 per
tonne of CO2 was cost-effective. All the woodland creation options
evaluated here met this criterion including a range of broadleaved
woodlands. The two most cost-effective options were conifer plantations
and rapidly growing energy crops, but mixed woodlands managed
for multiple objectives can also deliver abatement at less than
£25 per tonne CO2.4
2. Woodland creation can also bring a range
of other benefits. The Mersey Forest project showed that for every
£1 invested in woods and trees there was a return of £10.5
The Trust's policy briefing Greening the Concrete Jungle
illuminates the compelling economic rationale for expanding the
UK's native wood and tree cover.6 For example trees and woods
could save millions in healthcare costs. Around £110 billion
is spent each year in the UK on healthcare, equal to 8.5% of all
income. It has been estimated that if every household in England
had good access to quality green spaces such as woodland it could
save around £2.1 billion annually.7 Trees and woods therefore
offer genuine value for money at a time of enormous pressure on
the public finances. Moreover, assuming that the new Local Enterprise
Partnerships are going to be empowered to deliver long term prosperity
and regeneration they need to have an appreciation of the important
place of environmental and social concerns in the wider regeneration
agenda, alongside their more obvious role in securing economic
growth.
3. The Coalition government needs to provide
long term stability and certainty to the private and charitable
sectors in order to aid investment decisions and therefore create
an atmosphere in which achieving value for money becomes a realisable
goal. At present this certainty does not exist. The Trust is deeply
concerned at the press coverage from the seminar between business
leaders and Local Authorities as it suggested that the LEPs may
assume planning functions.8 This would contradict the spirit and
detail of the Coalition agreement which aimed to herald an era
of localism by returning planning powers to Local Authorities.
Indeed, the letter of 29 June 2010 from the Secretaries of State
for Business Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, and Communities
and Local Government, Eric Pickles, failed to mention any transfer
of planning powers to the LEPs.9 The Trust believes that it would
be inappropriate to give LEPs planning powers as they have neither
the democratic legitimacy nor the skills set needed to integrate
environmental, social and economic objectives.
4. Understandably LEPs will come under pressure
to secure private sector growth and as such are expected to be
led by prominent members of the business community. However, if
these bodies are destined to enact decisions that affect social
and environmental aspirations they should incorporate expertise
from these sectors. Without this type of inclusive partnership
there is a risk of marginalising the environmental agenda at a
time when there is widespread recognition that the environment
and prosperity are not in competition but intertwined and the
Coalition government rightly aspires to be the "greenest
government ever". In the foreword to the consultation on
the Natural Environment White Paper, the Defra Secretary Caroline
Spelman, rightly points out that "our natural environment
has a broader national value. It underpins our economic prosperity,
our food security, our health, our ability to adapt to a changing
climate and to reduce the greenhouse gases which cause this change",
and highlights that "degradation of our planet's ecosystems
is costing us €50 billion each year—a figure that could
rise to the equivalent of 7% of global GDP by 2050." 10 A
healthy natural environment is therefore crucial to our continued
economic prosperity and should not be considered an optional luxury.
5. It should also be remembered that charities
are often sizeable employers in their own right and help government
deliver on targets linked to public policy. For example, the Trust
employs over 300 members of staff and engages with the private
sector to help achieve its charitable aims. As an organisation
with notable commercial experience we would expect access to the
LEPs as a forum where we can discuss how our environmental and
social aims may aid business development.
THE REGIONAL
GROWTH FUND,
AND FUNDING
ARRANGEMENTS UNDER
THE LEP SYSTEM
6. The Trust has a vision of a UK rich in
native woods and trees enjoyed and valued by everyone. At present,
despite all the images of a green and pleasant land, the UK is
one of the least wooded countries in Europe with an average of
only 11.8% cover compared to the European figure of 44%.11 Moreover,
the levels of woodland creation with broadleaves trees have halved
in the last six years. 12 We therefore believe that a Regional
Growth Fund should also be used to fund woodland creation and
tree planting to deliver economic benefit and cost savings.
7. Research in the East Midlands has shown
that the value of the contribution made by trees and woodlands
to the region is over £300 million per annum. Of this £255
million is estimated to be the value of economic activities such
as leisure and tourism which utilise or benefit from the woodland
environment and the value to society of indirect or "non
market" goods. These include the public health benefits of
accessible open space, the impact on property values of attractive
landscapes and the social value of woodland. 13 In recognition
of these measurable benefits the Regional Growth Fund could unlock
the financing to support the Coalition's national tree planting
campaign and begin a wider drive to double woodland cover as pledged
in the Liberal Democrat general election manifesto. The fund could
also help deliver the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan which claimed
that if an additional 10,000 hectares of woodland was planted
per year for 15 years those growing trees could remove up to 50
million tonnes of carbon dioxide between now and 2050. 14
GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS
FOR ENSURING
CO -ORDINATION
OF ROLES
BETWEEN DIFFERENT
LEPS
8. It is generally accepted that the Regional
Spatial Strategies were far from infallible. However, whilst not
perfect, the process did help organise planning at a regional
and sub-regional level and may reasonably be assumed to have assisted
individual local authorities in their efforts to work co-operatively
with other arms of national and local government and across local
authority borders. The Trust is concerned that LEPs may be too
small to co-ordinate environmental policy at the strategic level
that often brings the greatest benefits.
9. Certain policy areas such as the environment
naturally cut across local authority boundaries and so there needs
to be mechanisms in place that facilitate co-operation and the
implementation of policy, both within and outside of individual
boundaries. There is, however, renewed confusion as the demise
of the Local Area Agreements means that there is no obvious medium
through which co-operation can be assured. It should also be noted
that there is a danger that much commendable policy on issues
such as green infrastructure may be lost due to the demise of
the Regional Spatial Strategies.
10. The Trust has concerns that whilst individual
local authorities may adopt environmental policies embedded within
the Local Development Frameworks and Core Strategies, these targets
may be undermined by the singular economic focus of the LEPs.
Should the LEPs assume planning powers it will be essential that
their remit is far wider than economic development. Without this
there is a risk that the prominent environmental aspirations of
the Coalition may be lost when these partnerships seek to implement
their policies on the ground. For this reason alone it appears
advisable that planning powers are kept separate from the LEPs.
ARRANGEMENTS FOR
CO -ORDINATING
REGIONAL ECONOMIC
STRATEGY
11. Any economic strategy should engage
business and charitable organisations whose expertise both in
their own right and in partnership working will aid the delivery
of policy. For example the Trust employs more than 300 members
of staff and, as well as being a significant employer in its own
right, has a wealth of experience at engaging private, charitable
and public sector organisations. Last year our MOREwoods initiative
enabled the creation of 210 hectares of new native woodland across
160 sites.15 Those taking part were motivated by a range of objectives
such as creating and extending wildlife habitat, leaving a legacy
for future generations to enjoy, providing shelter for crops and
livestock, and cover for game. As there is an important economic
component to our schemes such as MOREwoods we hope there will
be an opportunity to share our expertise in the formation of an
economic strategy.
STRUCTURE AND
ACCOUNTABILITY OF
LEPS
12. It is critical that the structure and
accountability of the LEPs fit within the Coalition's wider plans.
Local authorities should be encouraged to ensure that LEPs match
other informal sub-regional groupings as this will avoid confusion.
However, LEPs should not receive planning powers as this contradicts
the spirit of localism and the Coalition's commitments to "return
decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils"
and "radically reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods
far more ability to determine the shape of places in which their
inhabitants live".16 Should the decision-making of the LEPs
affect environmental and social objectives then there is a need
for voluntary groups that deal in these areas such as the Trust
to be fully engaged with the new structures. By including a diverse
set of interests the Coalition government may aid the delivery
of policy priorities and create the type of co-operative spirit
envisaged by the Big Society agenda.
THE LEGISLATIVE
FRAMEWORK AND
TIMETABLE FOR
CONVERTING RDAS
TO LEPS,
THE TRANSITIONAL
ARRANGEMENTS, AND
THE ARRANGEMENTS
FOR RESIDUAL
SPENDING AND
LIABILITY OF
RDAS
13. N/A
MEANS OF
PROCURING FUNDING
FROM OUTSIDE
BODIES (INCLUDING
EU FUNDING) UNDER
THE NEW
ARRANGEMENTS
14. N/A
REFERENCES1 Sir
David Read on behalf of the Forestry Commission, Combating
climate change a role of UK forests: An assessment of the potential
of the UK's trees and woodlands to mitigate and adapt to climate
change (November 2009).
2 HM Government, The Coalition: our programme
for government (May 2010), p.11.
3 Woodland Trust, Making Woodland Count
(2009).
4 Combating climate change a role of UK forests,
p. ix.
5 The Mersey Forest, The Economic Contribution
of the Mersey Forest's Objective One-Funded Investments (October
2009).
6 Woodland Trust, Greening the Concrete Jungle
(June 2010).
7 Defra, An invitation to shape the Nature
of England (July 2010), p 1. It is worth reading the transcript
from the speech of the Rt Hon. Caroline Spelman where she offers
a figure for the health savings that accrue from a health natural
environment: http://ww2.defra.gov.uk/2010/07/27/caroline-spelman-speech-white-paper/
8 Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,
Business Leaders and Local Authorities gather to discuss Local
Enterprise Partnerships (Departmental Press Release, 28 July
2010).
9 Letter from the RT Hon Dr Vince Cable MP Secretary
of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of
the Board of Trade and the RT Hon Eric Pickles MP Secretary of
State for Communities and Local Government to Local Authority
Leaders and Business Leaders (29 June 2010).
10 Defra, An invitation to shape the Nature
of England, p.2.
11 Forestry Commission, Forestry Statistics
(2009).
12 Ibid.
13 Forestry Commission, Space 4 Trees: the
Regional Forestry Framework (2005), p.5.
14 Department for Energy and Climate Change,
The UK low carbon transition plan: national strategy for climate
and energy (July 2009).
15 Woodland Trust, Morewoods: http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/plant-your-own-wood/morewoods/Pages/freewoods.aspx
16 HM Government, The Coalition: our programme
for government, p.11.
13 August 2010
| 
