Owl has reproduced Neil Parish MP’s thoughts on the environment bill, “much good in draft, but I think it can be more ambitious still”. Here is a riposte from Liz Pole, media officer for Devon Labour. She asks:

“why regale people in Devon with what’s needed, when it’s not in the government’s Bill in Westminster?”.

Seven years ago, Ella Kissi-Debrah aged 9, was rushed to a South London hospital unable to breathe properly, never to come home again. The World Health Organisation has been recommending 10 μg/m3 limits on fine particulate (PM2.5) air pollution since 2005. A new report from the British Heart Foundation warns dirty air will lead to more than 160,000 deaths from heart attacks and strokes over the next decade. “Let’s get on and put it in law”, exhorts Mr Parish. Yet Devon’s Conservative MPs are in process of voting an Environment Bill through parliament that includes no such legally binding commitment nor target date on air quality.

Poverty is also a threat to human health, and government policies, propped up by Devon Conservative MPs’ voting records, now mean 14 million people – more than one in five of the population – are living in poverty in the UK. East Devon District Council’s 2019 report on Poverty – A Local Picture, tells us that Universal Credit, the Right to Buy and the Housing Allowance cap are the easily avoidable factors driving families, who were previously getting by, over the edge into poverty. Over half of UK families living in poverty have at least one adult in low paid, insecure work, and over 30% of people aged 20-34 now live with a parent.

Another adverse effect of poverty is that it’s wasteful: and not just of human potential.  Investing in a good pair of shoes is a luxury enjoyed by those on a dependable income. People drawing their pay packets from zero hours contracts are more likely to buy a cheap pair that wears out quickly.

On waste, the Environment Bill’s RWS (Resources and Waste Strategy) and EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) make good progress towards establishing the concept of a circular economy, encouraging suppliers and retailers to seriously reconsider the materials used and the lifecycle of their products. However, City to Sea – a not-for-profit organisation campaigning to stop plastic pollution – says the Bill’s waste strategy is “very vague with relaxed, or no deadlines” and “a considerable amount of language like ‘consider’ and ‘try’”. Umbrella group Greener UK confirms the Bill does not commit the Secretary of State to uphold existing environmental standards.

Labour’s 2019 amendment to the Climate Change Act committed the government to a clear 2050 net zero target, but the Tory logic of the invisible hand cutting carbon by individuals at their own pace will not get us there. The reality is that “those who can afford to decarbonise will do so, and those locked in poverty may not”, says Shadow Environment Secretary, Luke Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport.

We should fund the new Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) “like the Environment Agency”, urges Mr Parish. Who isn’t alarmed by this? The Environment Agency has been one of the bodies worst affected by Tory austerity, suffering budget cuts of over 60 per cent over the nine-year period to 2019. As a result, prosecutions have fallen by around 80 per cent, and levels of food testing, water pollution sampling, and illegal waste prosecutions have all fallen sharply. The government response on flooding is slower even than that of its Part-Time PM. 

Mr Parish says the OEP should have “strong teeth”. It doesn’t. “The secretary of state both sets the OEP’s budget and appoints its leadership; will it be able to bite the proverbial hand that feeds it?” asks the Landscape Institute. They summarise what’s missing from the Bill: non-regression from EU standards, legally binding targets, independence of the OEP, and a sustainability skills agenda, equipping young people and employers. 

This week George Eustice, the government’s new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has voted against his own amendments to uphold British food standards in the Agriculture Bill. “Diverting agricultural financial support away from producing food and towards protecting the environment means that every Tom, Dick and Boris will use taxpayers’ money to invest in land for its ELMS (Environmental Land Management Scheme) payments”, says Paul Turner, Rural Affairs Officer for Wells Labour Party. “What is the point of planting the trees if we don’t have the labour to pick the fruit?”, asks NFU’s Horticulture and Potatoes Board Chair, Ali Capper on Farming Today. British Farmers must be wondering whether they’ve been sold “a pig in a poke” by the government.

Mr Parish rests on his environment and agricultural committee laurels locally, but does his vote up there in Westminster reflect what he writes in his column down here in Devon? “The government has grasped the nettle”, he proclaims in his latest column; but Devon’s farmers, Devon’s flooded and Devon’s FridayForFuturists alike may well wonder who is getting stung.