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What does the phrase “environmental importance” mean in relation to AONBs? I believe that it has two meanings. The first is about natural beauty. Can the existence of an AONB in the first place persuade a farmer that through a countryside stewardship higher level scheme, for example, he will leave 50 yards of grass on the edge of a ploughed field where rare invertebrates, unusual birds, flowers and butterflies may come? We have in a measure succeeded in that in the Downs around me. We have refound the Adonis Blue butterfly, the Brimstone butterfly and even a man orchid. The environment influence in that case is about beautiful hills, grass fields mown by sheep, clear streams with fish in them, ancient woods and more trees being planted to absorb the carbon.
There is a second environmental purpose, which in my book is something bigger and more important: an attempt to share the country with those who live in and only know the towns, so that they can appreciate and enjoy a good day in the country and are tempted to do it again. For some time we have had the Take the Bus for a Walk campaign to encourage people living in Brighton, which has a lot of land in the AONB, to take the bus to be dropped in one part of the Downs, walk for three or four miles and then take the bus back into Brighton again. We have encouraged people to visit bed and breakfasts and to leave their car behind, so that they can walk or bicycle for all the following day. I want to have more visits by schoolchildren to look at the beauties at Cuckmere
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Where will the money come from? The answer at the moment is that core funding for staff and officers comes from Natural England and the local authorities. Sustainable development funding, which is particularly for small partnership projects, also comes from Natural England. Project funding for special projects that may last up to three years or more comes mostly from Natural England but tends to bring in other funding, such as Heritage Lottery Fund money and different types of EU money. Natural England is a relatively new organisation and, however hard it tries to help the AONBs—we appreciate its efforts—all these resources are now under threat, because the Defra budget has reduced by some £200 million from last year.
I have received many e-mails over the past few days from AONBs that knew that this debate was taking place. If your Lordships will allow me, I would like to read an extract from one of them. It is from Robin Toogood of the South Devon AONB and it well illustrates the problem that we face. He says:
“To illustrate the leverage and value for money that Defra and Natural England derive from their financial input, I would cite our very successful programme called Life Into Landscape, which ran in South Devon AONB from 2004 to 2007, where Natural England was one of ten supporting partner organisations. In return for a small Natural England project contribution ... (which also included Heritage Lottery Fund and European Regional Development Fund) we were able to ... restore over 50 historic green lanes, assist 200 landowners with conservation work, conserve 32 old orchards, improve 20 walking trails, and involve 50 community groups in 7500 days of volunteer work. Many such partnership projects are underpinned by a small core of Natural England Funding”.
As one would expect, he goes on to say that he is now waiting for new money for more projects in future.
I have received similar comments from Dorset AONB, Kent Downs AONB, North Pennines AONB, Cotswolds AONB, East Devon AONB, Tamar Valley AONB, Isle of Wight AONB, Surrey County Council and Hampshire County Council. I recognise the widespread feeling that we could be doing so much more, but where will the money come from? AONBs do not yet officially know what money they will get from Natural England for the year that has just started.
According to the figures that I have, central government funding of AONBs for 2006-07 was £14 million and for 2007-08 was £12.2 million. It is expected that for 2008-09 it will be £10 million. Project funding for the year ahead is expected to be £500,000 for all the AONBs put together to help with staff redundancies, to try to avoid the loss of match funding from HLF and the EU and to support existing projects. There will be no new money for projects. I have to compare that with the treatment of national parks. National park money is going up from
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I remind noble Lords of the depth of important interest within the AONBs. We have 25 per cent of all the sites of special scientific interest, 90 per cent of the defined heritage coast, 55,000 listed buildings and 6,500 scheduled ancient monuments. In fact, we have 15 per cent of England, representing our finest landscape.
The Government recognise areas of outstanding natural beauty because in planning terms they have the same level of protection as national parks. The Minister will, though, be pleased, and perhaps surprised, to hear that I am not asking for the same status or payments as national parks have. I know quite well that I shall not get them. However, I am suggesting that Ministers, who are very supportive of AONBs in rhetoric, should try to do something a little more in action. I suggest that as the common agricultural policy money, the single farm payments, are phased out over the next five or six years, with a review in 2009 and a new budget in 2013, Ministers should make every effort to see that some of that money is reallocated to the environmental tasks that are undertaken by the areas of outstanding natural beauty. That would be an enormous step forward and, in the difficult negotiations that will go on about the common agricultural policy, it could well be a step to follow.
The Government already look to areas of outstanding natural beauty to achieve a range of their policies: access to the coast; opportunities for disadvantaged groups to enjoy the countryside, which is covered by the diversity action plan; biodiversity targets for SSSIs; and the new strategy introduced by the Department of Health, Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives, the aim of which is to get rid of obesity by encouraging more exercise. Where can you more easily get more exercise than by cycling or walking in one of the AONBs? Therefore, I hope that Ministers will carefully consider making AONBs a new target for EU money as the common agricultural policy is changed. It would be a great opportunity for Ministers to show that they have not lost interest in the rural economy and it would help AONBs to fulfil their huge potential to improve the countryside environment in Britain. I beg to move for Papers.
2.55 pm
Lord Bragg: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Renton of Mount Harry, for calling to the attention of your Lordships’ House a subject that is of ever-increasing importance in the scheme of things, indeed of importance in making sure that a decent scheme of things continues. There is now a realisation across the planet that it is not only our home but our responsibility. The planet used to control us; now, increasingly, we control the planet, and we have to face up to that. Those of us who are concerned for the future of our country and for the generations to come have a historically unprecedented
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The grand overview given by the noble Lord, Lord Renton, releases me to talk exclusively about the Lake District. It was one of the first great leisure and environmental landscapes uncovered anywhere in the world and as such is more than 200 years old. In its origins and its continued existence, it is an example and the pathfinder for much of the world. It is a useful and mature example of what we need to preserve and keep. Although comparatively small on the surface of the globe, the Lake District, with its unique and magnificent landscape that was scanned by our third greatest poet, Wordsworth, celebrated by our greatest literary critic, Coleridge, and our greatest art critic John Ruskin, backgrounded by our greatest children’s author Beatrix Potter, painted magnificently by our greatest painter, Turner, and many other distinguished painters up to and including Julian Cooper today, is essentially what environmental importance and outstanding natural beauty are about.
Into this small area pour 16 million day visitors each year, who support 44,000 jobs and, in effect, sustain the area. The core workforce in the Lake District sustains the visitors who sustain the Lake District. That symbiosis is crucial. The environment includes those whose livelihood makes it the destination of several increasingly urgent contemporary demands. I shall give a few more, rather more colourful, statistics. There are 33 lakes—only one is called a lake, which is a Trivial Pursuit puzzle for your Lordships—hundreds of rivers, scores of waterfalls, several of which are celebrated in immortal verse, more than 400 fells—Norse for “mountains”—a unique gondola on Coniston and bus boats on Derwent Water and other lakes. There are the highly successful Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, a music festival in the south lakes, the wonderful toy train up Eskdale, one of the world centres of poetic scholarship around Dove Cottage in Grasmere, the famous pencil museum in Keswick, the bird sanctuaries, the ospreys, the celebrated Lowther driving trials, the agricultural shows, the unique hound trailing tradition and the anorak centre of the world. There is so much, but as the pressure grows, more sustenance is needed, which is why, for instance, the Lowther Castle and Gardens project is so important to the north of the county. I look forward to the day when we can walk around every lake as now it is promised we can walk around the coastline of this country.
As in all national and natural environments of outstanding beauty, we increasingly need to keep up with the diverse demands of the visitors. For more than two centuries this extraordinary and complex environment has been fought for by philanthropic and far-sighted men and women. It is dependent on and maintained by the people who live there: their work, their sports and their habits, by those who live in it most of the year and keep it real and grounded, not a park, but a place. I sometimes wonder, idly, I suppose, why, given the billions that we allow in negative tax to the City of London and the billions we spend on sustaining projects and on mountains—fells—of
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I am not speaking here of the arts and the sciences, although their proper sustenance might merit another debate in your Lordships' House; I am talking about what should be our inviolable staples. For example, why are our fishermen not being helped in their overwhelmingly overregulated world? Are we not an island? More pertinently for this debate, why are hill farmers not better appreciated in the Lake District? It is they who anchor it in work that keeps its landscape, its character and its characteristics.
Dr Johnson said, “Keep your friendships in good repair”. Like all your Lordships, I think that we have to keep our environment in good repair, especially those areas miraculously preserved, such as the Lake District, which is the second biggest visitor attraction in this country next to London. That means looking after those whose daily occupation makes it acceptable for those 16 million visitors. That is my key point. The environment is basically in the hands of those who work there, and they and their jobs are as important as the landscape. I believe that that applies everywhere. Without a real infrastructure, an area of outstanding natural beauty can become a Disneyland and lose vital integrity. The infrastructure needs careful attention.
There is no lack of interest from those who are committed to the Lake District and those who use it. For instance, volunteers turn up by the hundred to put holding stones onto well worn paths up well worn walks. It is an area of outstanding national good manners, but good practice and good manners should be underpinned by good laws and good husbandry. It need not be emphasised in your Lordships' House that fresh air, exercise, the refreshment of landscape, the testing of physical limits by way of fell walking or, for the brave, rock climbing, and, above all, the opportunity to enjoy imagination in nature, become more and more valuable as the world becomes more and more citified and dissociated from roots dug in over millions of years. The bigger the cities grow, the more we need the country. That is where we came from and to which we need viscerally, at least from time to time, to return.
It is a fight to preserve the Lake District and other such areas. For instance, at the moment, the Lake District is threatened by too many wind farms. There are other threats where, as always, some private greed or public folly assails public welfare. Many fear that there is a real danger that this kingdom of outstanding natural beauty will be eroded. It is at present well run, but with something like this, we cannot be too careful.
The momentum of the times looks forward to independence. Scotland, Wales and even England are sometimes mentioned. If the Lake District is threatened, I suggest that it makes a bid for independence. After all, it is bigger than Monaco.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, at election time, there was a man called Mr Brownrigg. He liked to stand for Parliament. He would go into a field in Wigton, a town in which I was brought up, at a time when fields came right into the middle of market towns, and shoot bullets in the air from his gun to call
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His central policy statement was that we should build a wall around Cumbria. As an enthusiastic 10 year-old, I was a convert. Now, once again, I think that that might well be a way to hold fast the Lake District in an uncertain future, if constructive help is not fast coming from Whitehall and other coffers. We could build a wall around the Lake District. We are good at walls in Cumbria. We have a massive chunk of the Roman wall. The Lake District is netted all over with amazing dry stone walling—miles and miles of it—one of the most beautiful features of the landscape. We could wall everyone out with ease. We could charge our 16 million visitors a pound or two a head and provide a basis for our treasury. We could welcome back nuclear energy and develop it every bit as well as France, our new best friend, which gets 80 per cent of its energy from nuclear. We in Cumbria have the sites and the expertise.
Above all, we have water—the 33 lakes and innumerable rivers. We endure it. We should benefit from it. The Lake District should profit from it. As oil is to Scotland, diamonds and gold to South Africa, and gas to Russia, water could be to Cumbria—a flowing mine. As the world hots up, by way of water we could guard and preserve what is a unique environmental jewel in these islands and beyond. It might be worth the attempt. I think that we should get preparations under way just in case we need to help ourselves.
In the mean time, we should encourage those who can enrich the environment to move forward. The times and, I suspect, the people in this country are on their side and well understand and cherish the importance of such areas for themselves and their future.
3.03 pm
Lord Plumb: My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Bragg. It occurs to me that perhaps this is a subject that he might include for a good discussion in one of his morning broadcasts. I am sure that there would be tremendous interest.
Before I declare my interests, I make an apology. I have a long-standing commitment to speak in Warwickshire this evening. Perhaps I may be forgiven for leaving before the Minister winds up—I see him nodding his head and I thank him for that. I will stay as long as I can, but with the traffic as it is, I fear that I may have to leave before then.
First, I thank my noble friend Lord Renton for initiating this debate. It is a very important subject and it is a matter of concern not just to those who live in the countryside or who visit areas included in areas of outstanding natural beauty. I declare my interest as president of the Cotswolds AONB. I had the great pleasure a while ago of spending a Saturday in the area with the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, when we walked around some of the areas of unrivalled beauty. I am sure that he will remember that occasion, when we saw a sample of some of the 4,000 miles of dry stone walls in the area and a landscape equal to
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The Cotswolds were designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty in 1966, and the area was extended in 1990. It is the largest AONB in England and Wales, covering 790 square miles, second only to the Lake District National Park as the largest protected landscape. It is important to remember that 80 per cent of that land is in farmland and 9 per cent is in woodland. The area covers the whole area from the border of Warwickshire to Somerset.
In 2000, the Government confirmed that our AONB shared the same landscape status as national parks. However, as my noble friend Lord Renton said so clearly, that landscape status is not reflected in equality of resourcing or investment. We must all recognise that Defra has suffered its own financial difficulties and has passed on cuts in the various agencies, including Natural England, but Defra also funds the national parks through a grant-in-aid settlement, which has risen by 4.2 per cent for this year. Meanwhile, the AONBs receive their grant aid from Natural England, and as my noble friend so rightly said, they face a series of cuts.
We are three days into the new financial year, but the board has not yet received a grant offer from Natural England. For an independent corporate body, that is of deep concern for the financial viability of the organisation. Given that the conservation board’s purposes and structures draw heavily on those of our national park authorities, I am forced to conclude that the board’s financial settlement should similarly be modelled on those of the national parks, and that it would be far better off receiving a settlement direct from Defra, rather than from Natural England.
I am sure that the Minister will state that it is for Natural England to determine its own priorities and that, if we do not receive the investment that we desire, we should enter into discussion with Natural England, not Defra. Of course, that is true, from a strict interpretation of the rules, but the cuts that have been delivered to Natural England by Defra do not leave Defra entirely free from scrutiny.
Our financial settlement from Natural England comprises three grants: the core costs, for the general running of the organisation; the project costs, to achieve projects on the ground; and the sustainable development fund for special projects, the funds to deliver sustainable development projects in the community. We face reductions in all three grants. Having taken the decision to establish the conservation board in 2004 in collaboration with the 17 local authorities in the Cotswolds, we are concerned by these cuts. We should remind ourselves that the board comprises 40 board members, 15 of them appointed by the Secretary of State at Defra, 17 by the local authorities and eight by parish councils. We are bringing together the local authorities, but after only 3 years we appear to be undermining the
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The SDF grant within the national parks is secured at £200,000 per park. Since its establishment as a funding stream within the AONBs, the SDF grant has reduced year on year from £100,000 in 2005-06 to what is rumoured to be £60,000 in 2008-09. This variation of grant award between the two parts of our protected landscape family and the ongoing cuts within AONBs are of great concern.
I am also concerned by the way that the SDF fund is distributed. It is awarded as a standard lump sum per national park or AONB. On average, that amounted to £300 per square kilometre of protected land last year. The standard sum spread over an extensive area such as the Cotswolds reduces to £39 per square kilometre, severely disadvantaging Cotswolds residents. Despite these frustrations, we have utilised the SDF to support more than 50 innovative projects valued at £500,000, with demand for support far exceeding supply.
Our projects fund has similarly been cut year on year over the past four years. In 2007-08 the board received £50,000, compared with settlements in the region of £120,000 four or five years ago. That is the fund that enables the board to deliver projects on the ground and enables us to secure other funding streams, such as the lottery funds. One example of how it can work is the board’s Caring for the Cotswolds project, which drew down £1.4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund in return for an investment of £250,000 by the board—a tremendous gearing ratio. That programme helped to restore dry stone walls, invested in rural skills by providing dry stone walling training courses, restored flower-rich limestone grasslands by enabling the reintroduction of grazing and provided grants to local communities for the restoration of locally distinctive features, such as a village cross. The programme was completed in December 2007 and we are extremely grateful for that support. Without a reasonable projects grant, the board is unable to commit to similar projects and put its pound on the table in order to capture additional resources from lottery bodies.
Our core costs enable us to operate the board and employ staff. They also support the work of our voluntary wardens, who currently number more than 300. They are marvellous; they work voluntarily, investing their time in leading an extensive programme of guided walks, almost one for every day of the year, and undertaking a range of practical works to improve access and the natural environment. In June this year they will celebrate their 40th anniversary. In 2006-07 those 300 or so people invested more than 40,000 hours of time conserving, enhancing and improving the understanding and enjoyment of the Cotswolds. In monetary terms, that equates to £250,000 of effort—a prime example of volunteering in the community and the countryside.
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