RSPB reaction (and mine) to Keir Starmer’s speech

In response to the Prime Minister’s ‘Plan for Change’ speech, the RSPB Chief Executive, Beccy Speight, said: 

‘Deeply worrying rhetoric in the PM’s speech today, singling out regulators as naysayers when they can often be an under-resourced and desperately-needed defence, holding the line on protecting our natural world.

The UK needs homes, renewable energy and nature. Development can be delivered in a way that protects our wildest places, brings nature onto people’s doorsteps and drives nature restoration. We’re not short on ideas on how to make this happen – but it will take political vision and commitment to deliver a planning system that enables both people and nature to thrive. Doing otherwise would be extremely short-sighted, would undermine efforts to tackle the nature and climate crisis, and risks our environment at a time when the Government claims they want to raise living standards. We need to reinforce good regulations which uphold the law, uphold high standards and speed up decision making by providing certainty.

We have a real opportunity to reform our planning system and enable it to drive nature’s recovery alongside development, with both urgency and scale – but we can and must do better in using it to balance and join up all that society needs of our land.‘

I say: I agree with the RSPB that we need better, tougher regulation to help the natural world. And since 2010 the regulators have been eviscerated by cuts and bullying by government and vested interest groups. But if you look at the regulators we have, they need to prove themselves to be worth more investment too. Would you put more money into failed regulation?

Here are some examples that just come to mind, through the work of Wild Justice:

• failure of a variety of agencies (police, HSE, NE) to regulate legal and illegal rodenticide use – see Wild Justice report Collateral Damage (all of it, but especially p17)
• failure of Ofwat to regulate investment of water companies to keep rivers clean – we took a legal challenge and failed see here and here but we were right to highlight the problem
• failure of HSE to deliver new regulation on lead ammunition – it’s taking for ever
• failure of authorities to eliminate wildlife crime eg against protected wildlife on grouse moors – this is an enforcement issue but the simple solution which would have so many environmental and public benefits is to ban driven grouse shooting – sign the Wild Justice petition please.
• failure of NE to monitor SSSI condition and then enforce action – this is partly a matter of resources but it’s also a matter of lack of will – see Wild Justice report A Site for Sore SSSIs.
• failure by Defra (previous government) to introduce proper restrictions on burning on peat soils – Wild Justice took a legal challenge, which failed, and the problem still exists – see here.
• failure of Dartmoor Commoners’ Council, a public body, not a farmers’ and graziers’ club, to reduce overgrazing on Dartmoor heaths – see our ongoing legal challenge here and here
• failure of NE, NRW and DAERA in Northern Ireland to regulate killing of certain birds according to the law – Wild Justice legal victory in England (see here) and in Northern Ireland (see here) and we lost a challenge in Wales but the judge’s remarks were so strong that policy change followed anyway (see here)
• failure of Defra to regulate harmful releases of non-native gamebirds near sites of high conservation importance – Wild justice won a historic legal battle (see here)
• …and coming next week another Wild Justice report highlighting another failure – sign up to Wild Justice free newsletter to hear about it first – click here.

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