Rebecca Harris MP welcomes plans to restore nature, improve environmental quality and increase the prosperity of our area as the Government publishes its Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.

Building on the vision set out five years ago in the 25 Year Environment Plan, with new powers and duties from the Environment Act, Agriculture Act and Fisheries Act, it provides a comprehensive delivery plan for the Government’s approach to halting and then reversing the decline in nature.

This was the central target agreed in the new global deal for nature at the UN Nature Summit COP15 in December, which UK leadership helped deliver. The plan published today underpins that ambition domestically, with progress measured against stretching interim targets.

The Environment Act was enacted in 2021, which Rebecca supported at every stage. This required the Government to set a range of legally-binding targets for environmental improvement in air quality, biodiversity, water, resource efficiency and waste reduction. The Government has since extended this ambition even further, with additional targets for marine protected areas and woodland cover. The long-term targets were announced in December. The Environment Act also required short-term interim targets, with a maximum of five years in length, to be included set in the Environmental Improvement Plan to drive progress towards the long term targets.

The Environmental Improvement Plan includes commitments to;

• Create and restore at least 500,000 hectares of new wildlife habitats, starting with 70 new wildlife projects including 25 new or expanded National Nature Reserves and 19 further Nature Recovery Projects.
• Deliver a clean and plentiful supply of water for people and nature into the future, by tackling leaks, publishing a roadmap to boost household water efficiency, and enabling greater sources of supply
• Challenge councils to improve air quality more quickly and tackle key hotspots.
• Transform the management of 70% of our countryside by incentivising farmers to adopt nature-friendly practices.
• Boost green growth and create new jobs – from foresters and farmers to roles in green finance and research and development.

Residents across Castle Point will also benefit from a new commitment for everybody to access green space or water within a 15-minute walk from their home, such as woodlands, wetlands, parks and rivers.

The Environment Improvement Plan can be viewed in full here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1168372/environmental-improvement-plan-2023.pdf