Today (5 September 2025), The Wildlife Trusts publish new proposals for Wilder River Banks to underpin a brighter future for English and Welsh waterways.
Ahead of the UK Government’s plan to proceed with a Water Reform White Paper this autumn, the Wilder River Banks proposals put restoring natural habitat at the heart of plans to tackle the poor state of rivers.
Today sees the first anniversary of Secretary of State, Steve Reed’s major speech* on water in which he pledged to clean up our water once and for all through, for example, ‘increasing tree planting and protecting habitats that store water such as peatlands and wetlands’ and by working ‘with farmers to reduce agricultural run-off in our rivers and lakes’.
In July this year, Sir John Cunliffe published the final report of the Independent Water Commission setting out a package of recommendations to reset the water sector in England and Wales to meet environmental goals more effectively. The subsequent response from the Secretary of State recommended moving to a ‘catchment-based model for water system planning’ to ‘tackle all sources of pollution entering waterways so they can be cleaned up more effectively and more quickly’.
Decades of agricultural intensification and urban development have left nature-rich habitats alongside waterways severely depleted or absent. Ploughed fields, grazed pasture, manicured lawns or urban hard surfaces extend almost to the top of riverbanks, leaving them bare of wild plants and trees.
This makes it easy for loose soil, farm chemicals and manure to flow into the channel. Exposed waterways, lacking in overhanging plants and trees, heat up in the summer sun, sometimes reaching temperatures that are fatal for fish and aquatic insects. Road run-off contaminated with urban chemicals also flows directly into watercourses.
Posted On: 05/09/2025
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