The Wildlife Trusts publish list of the UK’s Government’s broken promises to nature - The Wildlife Trusts

King’s Speech must herald progress for nature or key UK Government pledge will fail.

Next week’s King’s Speech must signal a better future for the UK’s struggling natural environment – otherwise, the UK Government’s key manifesto pledge “to make ours the first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than we found it” will not be met.

Today, Friday 3rd November, The Wildlife Trusts publish a list of 10 broken promises by the UK Government on the environment. Despite the UK Government's assurances of leaving nature in a better state by the end of its tenure, there are increasing concerns that its nature-negative agenda is undermining its manifesto commitment. This includes repeated attempts to water-down environmental protections through ditching nutrient neutrality rules, the recent announcement not to prioritise species reintroduction, and the passing of the Retained EU Law Act which allows the UK Government to revoke or weaken environmental legislation without parliamentary scrutiny.

Additionally, there have been several delays to key policies such as Biodiversity Net Gain, a Chemicals Strategy and a substantial review of the National Planning Policy Framework which was promised for 2023. The latter is now unlikely to happen until next year – this means more uncertainty for the planning system which has been in turmoil throughout this parliament making it difficult to secure protection and nature recovery within the planning system.