New Environmental Improvement Plan

Today, the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published the new Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) for England, - a "detailed roadmap" to deliver legally binding environmental targets under the Environment Act 2021. Alongside the EIP, the government has announced £500 million in public funding for Landscape Recovery, designed to leverage private finance such as Biodiversity Net Gain units and carbon credits, and £85 million to improve and restore peatlands, among other commitments.

The big question is, will all of this help put us in the best possible position to halt and reverse nature’s decline, meet our legally binding targets and improve the profitability of farming? We await further, hopefully more detailed, information in the new year.

For many of the farmers, estates and landowners we work with, the long-term, landscape-scale direction is one of the most important signals in today’s announcements.

It aligns with much of our work, purpose and ambition in supporting our clients, - underlining the growing need to plan for nature, carbon and water at whole-farm and whole-estate scale and to build robust evidence of environmental outcomes.

Five themes, ten goals

The new EIP lays out ten long-term goals for England’s environment, grouped under five themes, or "chapters":

1. Restored nature (also the over-arching goal)

2. Environmental quality

3. Circular economy

4. Environmental security

5. Access to nature

   
   

It reaffirms the commitment to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030, supported by interim targets including the restoration of 250,000ha of wildlife-rich habitat outside protected areas by December 2030.

New interim targets

Defra has refreshed a series of interim targets to keep progress on track, including:

• Reducing nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture by at least 12% by 2030 (18 % in catchments with protected sites)

• Restoring or creating a total of 250,000ha of a range of wildlife-rich habitats outside of protected sites by 2030

• By 2030, doubling the number of farms providing sufficient year-round resources for farm wildlife, compared with 2025

The Environmental Indicator Framework sets out 66 measurable indicators, including biodiversity, water, air, soil, noise, biosecurity and habitat condition, which should help track progress over time and describe change in relation to the ten goals of the EIP.

Landscape Recovery - big projects and blended finance

Landscape Recovery targets large-scale, long-term, multi-farm projects to restore habitats, improve water quality, reduce flood risk and enhance biodiversity. Round 1 projects alone aim to restore over 600km of river, reduce nutrient pollution and support recovery for a suite of priority species.

The scheme is characterised by bespoke agreements lasting 20+ years, blending public funding with private finance such as BNG, carbon markets and other ecosystem services.

Today's announcement promises £500 million for Landscape Recovery projects.

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If you’d like to explore more, we would be very happy to discuss how we can help you shape a long-term environmental strategy that delivers both outcomes and income.