The agency tasked with protecting the English environment is struggling to protect important sites after suffering budget cuts:
The agency’s budget has been cut by more than half in the past decade, from £242m in 2009-10 to £100m for 2017-18. Staff numbers have been slashed from 2,500 to an estimated 1,500.
Natural England has wide-ranging responsibilities protecting and monitoring sensitive sites, including sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) and nature reserves, and advising on the environmental impact of new homes and other developments in the planning stages. Its work includes overseeing national parks, paying farmers to protect biodiversity, and areas of huge public concern such as air quality and marine plastic waste.
The Prospect union warns that Natural England is "at crisis point":
"Cuts have left Natural England at the point where its workers are saying they don’t have enough people or resources to do the things they need to do," said Garry Graham, the deputy general secretary of Prospect.
Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP who has asked a series of parliamentary questions on Natural England’s plight, said: "Behind the veil of Michael Gove’s fluffy rhetoric about caring for the environment, ministers have systematically gutted the agency that looks after irreplaceable habitats and beautiful landscapes. The result is plummeting morale as staff simply don’t have the resources to monitor thousands of protected sites across England, ultimately putting spaces for wildlife at risk of irreversible destruction."
