Will Therese Coffey end the ‘attack on nature’ as environment secretary?
New secretary of state must act over huge uncertainty over post-Brexit land subsidy schemes, mounting concern by conservation organisations, and worsening environmental crisis, experts say
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The political chaos within the Conservative Party has now brought the UK’s third environment secretary in two months and the fifth since 2019.
Civil servants at the Department for for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have already waved goodbye to Ranil Jayawardena, who took the job for the one month and 19 days Liz Truss was in Downing Street. As Rishi Sunak aims to restore a semblance of order in the party, Therese Coffey now takes the reins.
Ms Coffey moves over from her equally brief stint as health secretary under her close ally Ms Truss, during which she drew anger by revealing she shared antibiotics with her friends and over her voting record on legislation to outlaw smoking in cars carrying children.
She arrives at Defra after the ill-fated Truss administration sewed significant uncertainty about key policies.
Most notably, Ms Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s infamous mini-Budget announced the creation of “investment zones” in England where planning rules would be “liberalised” and “streamlined”.
They also planned a crackdown on solar energy projects on farmland, and caused huge anxiety among farmers and landowners with a "review" of post-Brexit land subsidies, known as the Environmental Land Management Schemes (Elms), in which it was understood they would scrap vital payments for landowners who planted trees and gave over land to nature to boost biodiversity. The results of that review are still understood to be due this week.
The combined impact of the proposals put forward by Truss’s administration were so alarming that it united the country’s biggest conservation groups in outrage, with some, including the RSPB, the National Trust and WWF, threatening mass protests over the "the biggest attack on nature in a generation".
With the UK’s conservation charity organisations having memberships of well over 10 million people, Ms Coffey must work to restore faith in the government’s recognition of the value of the natural world.
While the minister has not previously displayed a particularly strong interest in nature and the environment, she previously spent three years as a junior minister at Defra and has described her return to the department as “going home”. She represents a rural constituency, Suffolk Coast, and her appointment has lifted some hopes among environmentalists following Mr Jayawardena’s tenure.
Sarah Williams, head of Greener UK – a coalition of 12 major environmental organisations including the RSPB, National Trust, WWF, Wildlife Trusts, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace – told The Independent: “Therese Coffey is an experienced Defra minister, which is a good thing at a crucial time for the department.
"There are lots of exciting policies in her in-tray that she needs to get on and deliver, including post-Brexit nature friendly farming reforms and the targets that will be set under the Environment Act. But the Retained EU law bill threatens to drive a coach and horses through this agenda. It should be binned”.
Rebecca Newsom, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, told The Independent: “Given that Thérèse Coffey was deputy PM while Truss attempted to launch a wholesale attack on nature, she has her work cut out to set the record straight. It’s in the new Environment Secretary’s interest to put nature protection at the heart of the government’s agenda – not only is it popular with the public, the government’s own reports show that it goes hand in hand with economic growth, and yesterday her new boss recommitted to protecting the environment.
“To be more popular than her predecessor, Coffey must prioritise rolling out and confirming the cash for pre-planned agriculture subsidy reform to support more nature-friendly farming, as well as strengthening rules to stop sewage polluting our rivers and coasts."
Speaking about Rishi Sunak’s new cabinet, which has also seen Jacob Rees-Mogg exit as business secretary, the Green Party’s co-leader Adrian Ramsay said the government now has a chance to "reset the agenda", both at home and on the international stage.
He said: “Jacob Rees Mogg was a disaster in the short time he was business secretary, backing fracking and opening up the North Sea to more oil and gas exploration. Environment secretary Ranil Jayawardena was at best anonymous.
“New business secretary Grant Shapps and new environment secretary Thérèse Coffey have the chance to reset the agenda, and they must take it."
He added: “What matters most is that the government turns away from its obsession with promoting new fossil fuels, and stops tearing up regulations protecting nature.
“It must promote renewable energy and support people to insulate their homes with a funded national programme that will cut greenhouse emissions and energy bills.”
Martin Lines, the UK chair of the Nature-Friendly Farming Network, told The Independent: "One of the biggest challenges facing the new secretary of state will be continuing the reform of our food and farming systems, which has been plunged into uncertainty by the previous administration. The farming sector desperately needs leadership and clarity. We need to see a commitment to Environmental Land Management, with schemes that are viable for all farmers, ensuring farmer uptake and incentivising ambitious actions to drive a widespread transition to more sustainable and resilient farming."
He added: "A short-sighted ‘quick win’ would be to focus on simplicity for the sake of ease, and whilst this might drive short-term uptake, it will do little to address the long-term challenges facing farming, climate or the environment."
In a statement about her appointment, Ms Coffey said: “I am delighted to return to Defra, this time as secretary of state.
“As the prime minister set out, protecting our environment is at the heart of our manifesto. I will work closely with rural communities, farmers, industry and the champions of our environment to strengthen our natural environment and support our thriving food and farming sector.
“I look forward to resuming our work to protect nature and deliver a stronger rural economy.”
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