Restoring British wildlife

• The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Over recent decades, our native flora and fauna have faced significant decline, including populations of iconic and beloved animals, like the hedgehog and red squirrel. This decline continues today, with one in six species currently at risk of extinction.

• The Conservatives took action to halt the decline of biodiversity. The previous government took action to protect and restore our key habitats and to reduce threats posed to native wildlife. However, some of these achievements could be under threat as Labour pursues new EU deals, planning reforms, and changes to farming policy. 

• Local councils play an important role in protecting and restoring our wildlife. This briefing will explore some of the ways you can help to restore British wildlife, including creating more green spaces on council land, encouraging nature-friendly developments, and showcasing local volunteering opportunities.

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Background 

• The UK has lost much of its wildlife. Species across the UK have declined on average by 19% since 1970 and habitats have diminished, with wildflower meadows, once home to an abundance of insects, small mammals, and birds, having declined by 97% in the past century. 

• There are five main drivers of biodiversity loss globally. 

  1. Changes in land use. This includes the conversion of natural habitats such as forests, grasslands, and wetlands for agricultural and urban uses. As space for wildlife is lost, food, shelter, and breeding grounds become less available. In the UK, our removal of wetlands has contributed to the decline of wading birds, including the Eurasian Curlew which has experienced a 60% decline in numbers in England since the 1980s.

  2. Invasive species. Introduced either deliberately or accidentally, invasive species are non-native organisms that spread rapidly through their new environment, negatively impacting native species and ecosystems. They have contributed to almost 40% of all species extinctions since the 17th century. Since they were first introduced to the UK in the 19th century, the invasive grey squirrel, for example, has outcompeted the native red squirrel for food and habitat, as well as spreading the deadly squirrelpox virus.

  3. Climate change. The extreme weather events, more unpredictable seasons, and temperature increases that climate change will impact wildlife, rendering certain habitats inhospitable and forcing different species to migrate. In the UK, rising river temperatures and changes to ocean conditions are already impacting the Atlantic salmon which need cool, clean water to thrive.

  4. Pollution. A growing number of pollutants are entering our natural environment, from plastic waste to agricultural chemicals, which can be toxic and harm wildlife. For the European Hedgehog, the growing use of chemical treatments in gardening and farming, along with habitat fragmentation, has led to their numbers declining by 75% since 2000. Pesticides and slug pellets both harm hedgehogs directly and reduce the availability of their prey.

  5. Direct exploitation of the natural environment. Unsustainable use of our natural resources, through practices like deforestation and hunting, threaten wildlife. For example, the once abundant Scottish wildcat is now critically endangered in the UK after decades of hunting and persecution. 

• Biodiversity loss poses a significant threat to our food security and economic prosperity. Biodiversity loss is one of the biggest medium to long-term threats facing British food security. In 2022, the total asset value of the ecosystem services that nature provides, such as carbon storage, water purification, and food provision, was valued at £1.8 trillion in the UK. The decline of nature could, therefore, remove up to 12% off of UK GDP by the 2030s.

The conservative case for restoring British wildlife

• Wildlife forms part of our collective home. As conservatives, our instinctive love of home, or “oikophilia” as the late Sir Roger Scruton called it, is intertwined with a desire to improve it. Our natural environment, and the flora and fauna within it, is an integral part of our home, with our ‘green and pleasant land’ being part of our national identity.

• We want to leave society in a better condition than we found it. Edmund Burke, the father of modern British conservatism, described society as a contract between past, present, and future generations. As conservatives, it is our duty to uphold this contract, to pass on our world to the next generation in a better state than we found it. This shared inheritance applies as much to our cultural and economic inheritance as it does to our guardianship of the natural world.

• A desire to protect the natural world emanates from local communities. The desire to protect and improve our world stems from what Edmund Burke referred to as ‘little platoons’, small building blocks of affiliation that together form society at large. These little platoons want to take action, driven by the desire to protect their natural environment. The sense of responsibility and attachment to this land drives action. Today, local councillors have an important role to play in environmental stewardship, leading on efforts and helping residents to restore nature to the local area.

• Maintaining the integrity of our national ecology is a pragmatic solution to many of the challenges we are facing. The resilience of our natural environment is inextricably tied to our economy, with flooding and drought, for example, posing an increasing threat to both. By husbanding our resources sustainably and stewarding our land more effectively, we can improve the resilience of our communities and our economy. 

Previous Conservative government action

• The 2021 Environment Act established a framework for restoring nature to the UK. Alongside legally-binding targets, including to halt biodiversity loss by 2030, this act also established the Office for Environmental Protection and introduced a new Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirement for new developments in England to enhance biodiversity by at least 10%. The act also placed a new legal duty on water companies to reduce their use of storm overflows for sewage discharges. 

• Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) empowered upper-tier local authorities to develop plans to restore their local wildlife. Through the Environment Act, forty eight councils were tasked with creating an LNRS, covering the whole of England. These strategies require the councils to identify key habitats, set priorities for nature recovery, and coordinate conservation efforts with landowners and communities.

• Post-Brexit farm payment reforms financially support the adoption of nature-friendly farming practices. With food already rewarded by the market, our new environmental land management schemes (ELMs) spend public money on the provision of public goods that the market does not reward, such as improving water quality and soil health. By paying farmers to adopt more nature-friendly farming practices, they can restore the natural environment alongside producing food. 

• Funding was made available for English nature restoration efforts. The Nature for Climate Fund made £650 million available for tree planting and peatland restoration projects, including the Local Authority Treescapes Fund. The £25 million Species Survival Fund offered grants to fund wildlife recovery and the Green Recovery Challenge Fund provided £40 million to support nature restoration in England. 

• Unprecedented action was taken to tackle pollution and improve water quality. Alongside unlocking £56 billion of capital investment to reduce the use of storm overflows through the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. The Plan for Water committed to a suite of actions, including removing the cap on civil water company fines and creating a Water Restoration Fund, which spends money from water company fines on water restoration projects in the areas impacted by the original harm. The first round of this fund made £11 million available to communities. 

Action by Labour

• Labour initially recommitted to the last government’s targets for nature. Having initially supported natural environment targets set by the previous Conservative government, the Environment Secretary has since said that they should be ‘rationalised’ to ensure that they are deliverable. Labour is also reviewing the 2023 Environmental Improvement Plan, with an intention to develop a new, statutory plan to protect and restore the natural environment. 

• The government has published the long-awaited draft Land Use Framework. Initiated by the previous government, the Land Use Framework is now open to consultation. This draft was met with opposition from multiple directions. 

• The government has approved the wild release of beavers in England. This licensing regime will enable the release of these once native animals back into our landscapes and is accompanied by a requirement to produce management plans, to ensure farmers know how to respond if they encounter any issues with the releases.

• Labour has established a Tree Planting Taskforce. Made up mostly of public and third sector representatives, the task force aims to generate ideas for increasing tree planting in the UK. However, with little private sector involvement, it’s unclear how this approach differs from past efforts, or how it will deliver the scale of change needed.

• Labour has removed incentives to farm in a more nature-friendly way. Changes to Agricultural Property Relief risk undermining efforts to restore nature by removing an intergenerational incentive to steward the land sustainably. Labour has since halted Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) applications, and cut the overall farming budget by £100 million per year, although the amount being spent on nature-friendly farming will increase. This is expected to be followed by changes to how the nature-friendly farming budget is spent, with a focus on small farms rather than all farms, which could reduce the willingness of farmers to engage with the nature-friendly schemes. 

• Labour has removed and cut funding for freshwater habitat recovery schemes. The Chalk Stream Recovery Pack, drafted by the previous Conservative government, has been shelved by this government. Labour has also scrapped the Water Restoration Fund after one round, and has reduced funding for the River Wye Action Plan by 97%. 

• The Planning and Infrastructure Bill proposes the creation of a Nature Restoration Fund (NRF). If passed, this will let developers pay into a central fund to strategically mitigate the impacts of development, instead of the current site-by-site approach. While this may speed up development, in choosing Natural England, an arms length body, to run the scheme, the government risks sidelining the role that market-based and farmer-led nature restoration can play, instead empowering Natural England. There are real concerns about this top-down approach to nature restoration and the potential conflicts of interest that Natural England will face in its dual role as regulator and the NRF delivery body.

Ideas and resources

• Use the local nature recovery toolkit to inform decision making on nature recovery in your council. This toolkit is designed to help local authorities understand what the government's nature recovery policies mean for their council, and how they can turn statutory requirements into opportunities for the council. The toolkit also includes information on barriers, obstacles, and the delivery of nature restoration. 

• Reduce the use of pesticides on council land. Using pesticides more sparingly can reduce the amount of chemicals in the ecosystem, preventing harm to insects, and other wildlife. Through its Pesticide-Free Towns scheme, the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) is supporting councils wanting to cut their pesticide with advice and resources.

• Restore nature on council-owned land. Identify suitable land within a council’s jurisdiction for the creation of ‘micro-habitats’. This could include unused, marginal land such as roadsides, the edges of car parks, and the front of council buildings.

• Increase the amount of greenery in the built environment. Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS), such as ponds and rain gardens, manage water runoff while creating habitats for amphibians and insects. Susdrain and The Flood Hub have case studies and more information about SuDS. Water companies and the government have previously made funding available for SuDS. 

• Integrate biodiversity into local design codes. Councils can ensure new builds support biodiversity by integrating wildlife-friendly features such as street trees, swift bricks, bat boxes, and SuDS into planning requirements.

• Make it easier to create ponds through Local Development Orders (LDO). Ponds are an important freshwater habitat for many amphibians, insects, and plants. In order to create a pond, planning permission is sometimes required. Including ponds within the LDO would remove this requirement, enabling the creation of these new habitats. 

• Create opportunities for residents to support local nature recovery efforts. By empowering residents to become citizen scientists, you can boost engagement with and gather valuable data about local wildlife restoration efforts. Software, such as the Seek app, can enable residents to identify and record local wildlife, and includes various features which support wildlife mapping initiatives in parks and green spaces. 

• Advertise local wildlife volunteering opportunities on your council’s website. This will make it easier and more accessible for residents who might wish to learn about local nature recovery projects that they can get involved with. 

• Install road signs to help warn drivers of potential wildlife collisions. The process for local authorities to install small animal road signs, particularly to protect hedgehogs, was simplified by the Conservatives. The updated process aims to reduce bureaucracy and make roads safer for both animals and drivers. 

• Encourage residents to create ‘hedgehogs highways’ in their gardens. These nocturnal mammals travel around one mile every night to find food and mate, but garden fences can prevent their movement. By creating a small hole in garden fences, residents can contribute to their conservation. 

• Submit a motion to support local wildlife. Motion ideas include calling for the council to: conduct a local wildlife audit; end the use of pesticides in council green spaces; promote wildlife friendly actions to local residents; and restore local habitats. The background section of this briefing can be included as context in your motion.

Case studies

• Lancashire County Council is planting trees and protecting existing habitats. By the end of 2025, the council aims to plant 30,000 trees and restore local peatlands. The council is also strengthening its Biological Heritage Site System and continues to host the Lancashire Environment Record Network to monitor habitats and species.

• Cornwall Council created new wildlife habitats on council-owned land. In seven villages and towns across Cornwall, the council created new woodland and urban green spaces. By planting flowers, trees, and shrubs, the council improved habitats for birds, insects and wildlife, and enhanced space for residents to relax and exercise in.

• Nottinghamshire County Council designated new nature reserves to boost biodiversity. The council created nature reserves in five new locations on council-owned land. With the help of Natural England, it consulted on how the reserves could best serve wildlife. The large geographical spread of the reserves also means that residents across Nottinghamshire have greater access to nature. 

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