Environment Agency should be stripped of its powers, says Tory pressure group

NATURAL ENGLAND and the Environment Agency (EA) should be stripped of their responsibilities, two former Cabinet ministers and grassroots Tory activists have urged.

The Conservative Rural Forum (CRF), a pressure group that relaunched last year to champion the countryside, will call for the quangos to be brought back into the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) after criticism of their performance.

Natural England stands accused of blocking the construction of up to 145,000 homes by policing European Union-derived laws that require developers to prove new homes will not raise levels of phosphate and nitrate in rivers.

The EA does not have a dedicated team to deal with water pollution despite the sewage crisis in Britain’s rivers, while also failing to upgrade flood defences in one of Britain’s worst-hit towns during the pandemic.

A manifesto set to be unveiled by the CRF today will include the demand to “bring delegated responsibilities of Natural England and the Environment Agency back into Defra”.

Ranil Jayawardena, who served as Liz Truss’s environment secretary, said: “Given the importance of the environment to the British people, the CRF’S proposal for Natural England and the Environment Agency to be brought back into Defra is an excellent and natural first step.”

Brandon Lewis, a former Tory Party chairman, added that the EA was “long overdue proper reform”.

Lizzie Hacking, the chairman of the CRF, said: “Both Natural England and the Environment Agency have repeatedly shown that they haven’t been looking out for the best interests of rural communities.”

A government spokesman said: “There are no plans to do this – but we remain focused on ensuring all our public bodies are efficient and effective.”

An EA spokesman said: “The EA board is directly responsible to ministers for all aspects of our organisation and performance and we are committed to continually improving our services and raising performance against our targets.” A Natural England spokesman said: “Thriving Nature is vital to us all, which is why the Government has set legally binding targets to protect and restore the environment.”