Natural England has taken a bruising in political circles in recent months, but particularly in the last week, after the Conservative Party outlined plans to abolish the watchdog were it to be in government.
In September, Reform UK also threatened to abolish Natural England should it ever form a government, and the regulator has also come under recent criticism from a Liberal Democrat MP who chairs the Environment, Farming, and Rural Affairs committee.
The news may sound like déjà vu – in the later years of the most recent Conservative governments, Natural England became wrapped up in what NGOs dubbed an ‘attack on nature’. But is it different this time?
On this week’s ECO Chamber, special guest Sally Hayns, chief executive of The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management joins podcast host Tess Colley and ENDS Report editor in chief, Jamie Carpenter, to put the latest attacks in context.
PLUS: The new taskforce on ‘climate security’; why the Tory shadow environment minister is calling for the Welsh environmental regulator to be scrapped; and the net zero chief who has just left his position in the government.
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