Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan Sets High Ambitions but Requires a Clear Plan for Delivery

• The Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan published today is the first review of the UK’s 25 Year Environment Plan. It sets out how, with new powers and duties from the Environment Act, Agriculture Act and Fisheries Act, the Government aims to halt nature’s decline by 2030
• The Plan does not include critical details that are important for the built environment sector, meaning the roadmap to a regenerative future remains incomplete
• Also today, UKGBC welcomes Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework as a practical tool to help local authorities put nature at the heart of their priorities

UKGBC welcomes the ambition and vision of the Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan, particularly the water efficiency roadmap which broadly aligns with UKGBC recommendations.

Yet the Plan falls short of providing the practical targets and policies for the built environment to play its part in halting nature’s decline. Many critical areas of interest to our sector – including planning system reform, policies for environmental net gain, and tangible targets – are insufficiently explained or missing entirely from the Plan.

With our sector’s ambition to ensure that all buildings and infrastructure be climate resilient and maximising environmental net gains by 2030, such Government certainty is urgently needed.

Julie Hirigoyen, Chief Executive at UKGBC said:

“There is plenty to welcome in the Government’s encouraging Environmental Improvement Plan that sets high ambition and can support our members to continue pioneering bold nature-based solutions.

“Yet without more detailed delivery goals and policies for transforming the built environment, the Government’s job is incomplete. Our sector urgently needs clear, tangible policies that businesses can rally around to design and deliver a regenerative, restorative future for the UK’s built environment. With our natural world on the line, we simply cannot afford further delay.  

For nature to thrive in the UK, the Government must also change track and put nature protection at the heart of its planning reforms and preserve critical environmental protections currently at risk in the Retained EU Law Bill.

Also published today, UKGBC welcomes Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework.

Philip Box, Policy Adviser, UKGBC said:

“Natural England’s framework and guidance can prove a powerful resource for local authorities to design and deliver the urgently needed green infrastructure to help their communities adapt to increasingly dangerous climate change.

“From urban tree canopy cover to greening factors, this Framework strongly aligns with UKGBC’s Nature & Climate Resilience Playbook in supporting local authorities and the built environment sector to help lead the way in halting nature’s decline by 2030. “While we work continuously to skill-up local decision-makers, we urge the UK Government to help scale-up nature preservation and resilience policies by ensuring they are written comprehensively into the planning system, ensuring the UK can match the pace and ambition of biodiversity’s ‘Paris moment’ at COP15.”