Environment Agency/Natural England: Working locally for people and the environment

Breakfast session, Wednesday 29 June 2011

One area of national policy that the localism agenda will have a large impact on is the management of the natural environment. This breakfast session was hosted by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and their key agencies - the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Forestry Commission – to explore how localism can improve solutions to key natural environment issues such as flood risk management and climate change. By embracing localism and the Big Society, and involving local people and agencies more fully, the agencies hope to improve the sustainability and effectiveness of their approaches, .

Poul Christensen CBE, Chairman of Natural England, opened the discussions by underlining Natural England’s core aims. He emphasised that the agency is there not to make decisions on behalf of local communities but to provide evidence-based advice that will allow local communities to make their own decisions about future land use. He highlighted the recent Natural Environment White Paper, the first such White Paper for 20 years, and the focus on putting local decision-making at the heart of policy-making. Part of this will be to develop new wildlife-rich landscapes through Nature Improvement Areas with a high level of citizen engagement and to launch a competition to identify 12 pathfinder areas. Similarly, local biodiversity offsetting schemes will be explored through five new pilot partnerships, also with increased levels of citizen engagement.

Andy Brown, Deputy Chairman of the Environment Agency (and former Chief Executive of English Nature), outlined the Agency’s key roles in waste management, flood defence, environmental impact assessment and emergency planning. Looking to the future, he highlighted three core areas for the Agency:

•    flood defence and coastal erosion, particularly surface water flooding and community involvement in catchment management
•    the Water Framework Directive and the translation of catchments into local plans
•    climate change adaptation, including the follow up from the UK Climate Change Impacts work via Climate UK and the Agency’s broadening of advice on adaptation

Clyde Loakes, Vice Chairman of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Environment and Housing Programme Board, highlighted a case study from Walthamstow where the residents have been involved in local decision-making. After his speech, questions were invited from the audience. The topics included:
 
•    the role of the inshore fisheries and conservation agency
•    flood maps and their accessibility to insurance companies
•    river basin liaison panels
•    the potential of LGA groups to occupy new policy spaces that have traditionally been the remit of national Government

Sciencewise is working in this are by supporting participatory ecosystem services pilot projects in England, Scotland and Wales. These will enable local authorities to engage with citizens on complex choices and trade-offs to do with ecology, environment and land-use futures. Sciencewise-ERC is exploring with Defra, the Environment Agency and Natural England how it can support citizen engagement elements relating to the Water Framework Directive, the National Ecosystems Assessment and the Natural Environment White Paper.