Share

cover art for Sir Keir’s regulatory Christmas cracker and green gongs for beekeepers

Eco Chamber

Sir Keir’s regulatory Christmas cracker and green gongs for beekeepers

Season 2025, Ep. 122

Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.


This week, ENDS journalists discuss:


  • Sir Keir Starmer’s Christmas message for regulators
  • The green gongs handed out in the New Year’s Honours list – including some you may not expect
  • And what you need to know about why Southern Water has started the new year facing a threat of legal action


More episodes

View all episodes

  • 126. Fights over farmland and Heathrow déjà vu

    18:59||Season 2025, Ep. 126
    Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.This week, ENDS journalists discuss:The long awaited Land Use Framework Why the Heathrow expansion could ‘fly in the face’ of the country’s climate targetsAnd Steve Reed’s update on his environmental improvement plan review
  • 125. Starmer’s fish disco flap and bees buzzing after Cruiser SB crushed

    15:45||Season 2025, Ep. 125
    Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.This week, ENDS journalists discuss:Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s declaration of war on ‘green zealots’ and the government’s latest set of planning rule changes.DEFRA’s rejection of toxic pesticide Cruiser SB in a win for bees, but not British sugar. And what you need to know about a climate and nature bill push that has been shelved, a newly announced expert panel for the Water review, and disco scallops. 
  • 124. Trump’s onslaught of orders and Reeves’ regulation attack

    13:48||Season 2025, Ep. 124
    Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.This week, ENDS journalists discuss:The climate and environment-related actions taken by Donald Trump in his first hours as US presidentThe UK chancellor Rachel Reeves’ order to environmental regulators to “tear down” regulatory barriersAnd what you need to know about the “non-legal” biodiversity net gain metric currently in circulation, how the OEP has rated the government’s progress on reaching its environmental targets, and what new US guidance on the chemicals within sewage sludge might mean for the UK. 
  • 123. Lynx let loose and landfill laggards

    19:05||Season 2025, Ep. 123
    Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.This week, ENDS journalists discuss:The landfill laggards sending more than half their black bin waste to landfill How the company at the centre of an ENDS investigation, which exposed the most PFAS-polluted town in the UK, ‘ignored advice’ on forever chemical pollutionAnd what you need to know about the lynx set loose in Scotland, how the environment secretary’s new year’s encounter with farmers went, and the landmark water pollution case taking place this week that you need on your radar
  • 121. ECO CHAMBER CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: The big green round-up of 2024

    31:17||Season 2024, Ep. 121
    Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.This week, ENDS journalists look back at:The biggest environmental crimes and fines of 2024.The farmers sticking salmon up their sleevesAnd the politicians who fumbled their environmental policy pledges during the general election.For this week’s deep-dive, the team discusses what Labour’s arrival has meant for environmental policy in the UK and what might be ahead. This episode was recorded on 6 December 2024. 
  • 120. Labour's most wanted: bats and newts cop the blame for the housing crisis

    25:36||Season 2024, Ep. 120
    Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.This week, ENDS journalists look at:Why the language used by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner in the last week in reference to nature protections has prompted a strong backlash from major environmental NGOs. For the news-in-brief: Shell has formed a joint venture with Equinor to ‘extend the life’ of North Sea oil and gas production; Campaigners are disappointed over the housing secretary's green light for M&S’s flagship redevelopment; and the Office for Environmental Protection’s chief executive is “quite astonished by how much environmental law is not complied with”.For this week's deep-dive, the team explores what the 6,000 abstraction licence breaches recorded in past decade tell us.
  • 119. Has the EA finally stopped the stink at Walleys Quarry?

    24:44||Season 2024, Ep. 119
    Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.This week, ENDS journalists look at:The environmental grant payments suspended by the environment secretary Steve Reed and his plans to set the sector on a new path.For the news-in-brief: DEFRA may have broken the law when it comes to giving Cruiser SB the greenlight for farmers; rivers close to sugar beet farms contain the highest levels of neonic pesticides and the failed global treaty to scrap plastics.For this week’s deep-dive the team discusses the implications of the Environment Agency's decision to issue a closure notice on the notorious Walleys Quarry. 
  • 118. ‘Tractor tax’ troubles and deposit return scheme disarray

    19:19||Season 2024, Ep. 118
    Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.This week, ENDS journalists look at:Why farmers are still furious with the government and the big agricultural policy changes slipping under the radar in Wales;A milestone moment for the beleaguered recycling policy, the deposit return scheme;And the news-in-brief: what you need to know about the outcome of the COP29 climate summit; why chancellor Rachel Reeves is talking nature to the Bank of England; and the biodiversity and climate jobs about to lose funding at the Forestry Commission.