Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs publishes its departmental plan for 2015-2020, outlining priority areas in flooding, air pollution and wildlife diversity
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has released its five-year plan for delivering a cleaner, healthier environment while encouraging growth and prosperity in the UK's rural economy.
The plan, released late last week, outlines how Defra plans to allocate its £2bn annual budget through a range policies to benefit the UK's countryside and environment.
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Defra said in the plan that its vision is to "unleash the economic potential of food and farming, nature and the countryside, champion the environment and provide security against floods, animal and plant diseases and other hazards".
The department is facing some major challenges over the course of this Parliament, including an ongoing legal battle over its efforts to tackle air pollution and mounting public pressure to improve flood defences after the devastating winter deluges.
One of its key priority areas is to improve the health of the UK's environment by developing a natural capital plan in collaboration with the Natural Capital Committee. A framework for the wide-ranging plan, which will cover all areas of the UK's natural environment and is likely to impact planning and development policymaking, is expected in Spring 2016.
It is expected to include proposals for "catchment areas" to help Defra measure the UK's flooding risk by region and allocate resources accordingly. Over the course of this Parliament the government has said it will invest £2.3bn in flood defence spending to better protect 300,000 homes from the risk of flooding in the face of rising sea levels and increasingly severe winter storms.
Defra said 12,9000 households are better protected against flooding now than in January 2015, despite the devastating flooding that wreaked havoc and caused billions of pounds of damage in the north of England over the Christmas break. It promises that by March 2017 up to 95,000 households will be better protected, and by March 2019 this figure will rise to up to 180,000.
However, critics have warned the level of flood managment spending is still below that recommended by the government's own advisors on the Committee on Climate Change, leading to accusations flood risk is still increasing for many properties.
The 25-year natural capital plan is also expected to contain "key progress indicators" to measure the health of the UK's forests, water ways, air quality and protected areas.
Air quality is one of the most politically potent of these areas, following a ruling by the Supreme Court last year forcing Defra to come up with a better plan for tackling air quality by the end of 2015.
The resulting UK Air Quality Plan, published in December 2015, set out its plans to create a new fleet of Clean Air Zones in major cities across the country, which will place tighter restrictions on traffic in city centres in a bid to reduce the level of particulate matter emitted from vehicle exhausts. Defra has promised to report on the progress made against these key indicators each year.
However, environmental law firm ClientEarth has already criticised the plan for being inadequate and has vowed to revive its legal action against the government in a bid to force it to develop a more ambitious plan
Defra must deliver on its five-year plan under a far stricter spending budget than it has enjoyed in previous years. In November's Spending Review George Osborne announced that Defra would receive a 15 per cent cut to its day-to-day spending.
In its new departmental plan Defra promises to deliver "outstanding" value for money by working more effectively across government departments and using streamlined IT systems. "We will become a more modern, streamlined department acting together to do things more strategically and simply and maximise impact," it said.
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