Tories vow to scrap Natural England and EA in Defra overhaul
© UK Parliament The Conservatives would abolish Natural England and the Environment Agency and bring their working powers back under direct ministerial control, Victoria Atkins announced on Monday (5 October).
The shadow Defra secretary said the move was the first stage of a year-long review of the department’s 34 quangos by the Tory opposition.
See also: EA criticised for going after farmers, not big polluters
Speaking at an NFU breakfast briefing at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, she said the party would “restructure Defra completely”.
Ms Atkins said Defra was the government’s smallest department yet had a huge bureaucracy, with “one Defra-related civil servant for every five farmers”.
Powers that worked would return to the department, she said, while those “that get in your way” would be scrapped. Staff doing a good job in the agencies would be invited to stay “on team Defra”.
Accountability
She said the aim was “direct accountability”, with Defra becoming “the sleekest, best run department in Whitehall”. It should change, she said, from “a department that says no” to one “on your side, looking after you”.
She cited a dairy farmer with no history of pollution incidents who was told by the Environment Agency (EA) there was a risk of a pollution incident in 50 years. He was ordered to spend £750,000 to prevent it.
“That is outrageous,” she said. “As the farmer said to me, there won’t be a pollution risk in 50 years’ time because there won’t be a farm in 50 years’ time.”
She also attacked Natural England over the heather-burning ban signed off by the government last summer.
Fire chiefs and scientists say it will harm nature and make fighting wildfires harder after a brutal summer.
“That is madness,” she said, adding that ministers were not accountable for such decisions.
She also praised Cumbrian farm cluster, headed by sheep farmer John Geldard, that fixed flooding on the River Winster at Grange-over-Sands in three weeks after, she claimed, both agencies had blocked efforts to act.
Condemnation
The Tory plans to scrap the EA and Natural England have drawn strong condemnation from the Wildlife Trusts, however.
Its chief executive Craig Bennett said such a move would do nothing to encourage growth or deliver development, as claimed by shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith ahead of the conference.
“Instead, they will expose the UK’s economy to dangerous weather, the UK’s food supplies to biodiversity collapse, and UK homes to flooding and extreme heat,” he said.
“In an age when climate change and nature loss are a growing security threat, abolishing environmental regulators and safety standards amounts to gross negligence from any party that aspires to government.”
Support
However, the Countryside Alliance said it supported the Tory proposals.
Director of external affairs Mo Metcalf-Fisher said: “It is vital that critical decisions about the future of rural communities are taken by elected ministers, not bureaucrats.
“Returning the important functions of these quangos to direct government control could go a long way to ending the accountability gap and cutting red tape for the custodians of our countryside”.
Family farm tax
Shadow Defra secretary Victoria Atkins said the Conservatives would step up their campaign against the family farm and family business taxes before the Budget on 28 October, despite the government’s partial U-turn last December.
She cited new Country Land and Business Association research suggesting around 90% of farm businesses had decided not to invest because of the threat of the tax.
“That is absolute madness,” she said.
Ms Atkins added: “If they [the Labour government] do not axe it at the Budget, then we will axe it when we next form a government. That is a promise from Kemi [Badenoch] and from me.”
She accused the government of showing neither “courage or decency” by announcing the partial U-turn on inheritance tax thresholds last Christmas Eve rather than in parliamentary time.