.. Desmond Swayne

Sir Desmond Swayne TD MP

Sir Desmond Swayne TD MP

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Commit to Action for Nature Email Campaign

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The Government has a legally binding target to halt the decline of nature by 2030, which requires action in our protected sites as vital wildlife havens. In its Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), the Government restated the commitment to restore 75 per cent of protected sites to a favourable condition by 2042, while also setting an interim target to put us on the right path to achieving this goal by 31 January 2028.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) worked closely with Natural England in setting the interim targets in the EIP and consulted widely on the legally binding targets set out in 2022. Defra continues to work closely with Natural England to achieve both of these commitments.

Further, through the Sustainable Farming Incentive, farmers are paid for actions that support food production and improve farm productivity and resilience, while also protecting and improving the environment. This includes actions relating to soil health, hedgerow management, providing food and habitats for wildlife, and managing pests and nutrients.

When adopted at scale by farmers, these actions will make a significant contribution to the Government’s environment and climate targets, and support objectives to maintain food production and improve farm productivity. This includes the aim published in the EIP of between 65 and 80 per cent of landowners and farmers adopting nature-friendly farming on at least 10 to 15 per cent of their land by 2030.

Regarding green jobs, the UK has attracted around £120 billion investment in renewables since 2010 and is expected to attract a further £100 billion investment in net zero by 2030, supporting up to 480,000 jobs. The Government is providing investors with long-term certainty over policy and regulatory frameworks to unlock investment and create jobs in green industries such as hydrogen, carbon capture, offshore wind and nuclear.

Additionally, any decision to modify our tax regime is a matter for the Treasury and careful consideration will be given to any proposed amendments.

Finally, access to open spaces and nature is important for the health and wellbeing of our communities, and Ministers have set a new ambition that everyone should live within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space. Through the £14.5m ‘Access for All’ programme, the Government has targeted measures to improve access to our protected landscapes and countryside. Defra is also working to complete the England Coast Path, which will be the longest waymarked and maintained coast walking route in the world. Ministers are also creating large-scale, publicly accessible woodlands near towns and cities.

DS

HS2

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A constituent wrote to complain that he couldn’t find my blog on HS2. That’s because I’ve never written one…yet.

The reality is that most MPs are generalists. Of course, some bring particular, knowledge, expertise and experience from a profession or previous walk of life that they’ve been involved in. Others will master a brief and become expert in an aspect of policy in which they’re particularly interested, or if they’ve been appointed to a specific bill’s standing committee or elected to serve on a select committee.
Not many of us are polymaths, so we are reliant on advice of experts and to temper that advice with our own prejudices and the weight of opinion of constituents, and most important of all, participating in the debate in Parliament -which is, after all, what we were elected to do.

I’ve always had a healthy scepticism for large public sector infrastructure projects. The great age of the railway, though enabled by parliamentary legislation, was financed by private enterprise which carried both the risks and the rewards.
Nevertheless, HS2 with its huge implications for taxpayers, was given thorough parliamentary scrutiny. The Act that enabled it broke precedent by spanning two different parliaments (the members of the special standing committee, to ensure continuity, had to be from ‘safe’ seats which were unlikely to change hands in the election dividing the parliaments).
The Bill was subject to the hybrid procedure because it disproportionately affected so many different private interests. That procedure places a very significant additional burden on the MPs sitting on the committee, giving them a quasi-judicial role.  Various interest groups, represented by parliamentary counsel (specialist barristers) present evidence from witnesses and cross examine the witnesses of other interest groups. The MPs sit as both judge and jury, they can intervene to cross-examine witnesses themselves, as a trial judge might.
The snag is that, like a juror, an MP nominated to such a committee has to present for every session of what, in the case of HS2, was a marathon.

Though I had my doubts, I was never a partisan. I was prepared to accept the judgement of the standing committee that had examined all the evidence in such detail. Those MPs who were most vehement in their opposition clearly had a particular axe to grind: they were disproportionately those colleagues whose constituencies in the Chilterns, and elsewhere, were going to be dug up.
I was to some extent reassured by the pedigree of the protagonists. Philip Hammond, formerly the MP for Runnymede and Weighbridge, was the Secretary of State for Transport who gave the green light to the project, he also became one of our most conservative and parsimonious of chancellors of the Exchequer.

I always thought that halving journey times was a complete red herring. The case was always, in my estimate, built on the huge shortage of rail capacity on the routes north of London, where no new railway had been built for over 100 years. The question was one of ‘if we are going to build the new rail capacity that is needed, would we build an ‘old one’ or one using the latest cutting-edge technology?

We went for the latest technology, and that is largely responsible for the exponential rise in costs.
We have a duty to review the decisions we made in the light of the detrimental impact that these costs have on other important national priorities. It is always difficult to admit a mistake, particularly such a costly one, but it may be better than compounding the mistake by ploughing on.
I will await the outcome of the PM’s review before deliberating further.

“Please help UK shoppers make choices they can trust” Email Campaign

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The Government wants to make it easier for the consumer to purchase food that aligns with their values, by improving transparency and providing the industry with a level playing field to promote such products. The majority of consumers value high standards of animal welfare but this is not always fully reflected in what they purchase.

The Government ran a call for evidence in 2021 to gather data on the impacts of different types of labelling reforms for animal welfare. Over 1,600 responses were received and the evidence suggested that there is public appetite for improved welfare labelling. However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) does not consider the time is right to consult on proposals to reform labelling for animal welfare.

Ministers intend to continue working with industry to explore how we can harness the market to improve food information for consumers and raise animal welfare standards. As part of this, Defra will continue to gather evidence on the impacts of wide range of market interventions, as well as how they would align with wider labelling proposals such as eco-labelling.

DS

Save the Great British Holiday Email Campaign

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Holiday lets contribute to the economy, create jobs, and support tourism.  The Government backs small businesses, including responsible short-term holiday letting, which brings significant investment to local communities. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge the impact that large numbers of holiday lets concentrated in an area can have on local communities.

The Government’s proposed planning changes would see the introduction of a new national use class and, simultaneously, the introduction of a new permitted development right. The new permitted development right would provide flexibility where short-term lets are not a local issue and allow for this flexibility to be removed where there is a local concern. Any Article 4 direction to remove the permitted development right must be evidence based and should apply to the smallest geographical area possible, and could therefore be focused on those areas or streets that see the highest numbers of short-term lets, or individual properties.

As set out in the consultation document, when the use class comes into effect existing properties would fall into the short-term let use class where they met the definition or remain as C3 dwellinghouse. Any re-classification is not considered development and so property owners should not need to apply for planning permission where they meet the definition of short-term let. They would be classified as such and would not require planning permission.

As you may know, the Government has also consulted on plans for a short-term lets registration scheme. A registration scheme is important. Crucially, it will provide information to help local authorities enforce health and safety regulations and apply and enforce the planning changes.

DS

Keep mum about Mum

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I read that during a Department of Trade seminar, organised by its ‘LGTBQ+ Network’ sixty participating civil servants were asked to describe their weekend but were told avoid mentioning the gender of anyone, or pronouns that would give it away. An example given was not to say “I went home to visit Mum and Dad” because some people may have two mothers or two fathers.

I don’t have any statistics, but I suspect that families with two fathers or two mothers are still relatively rare. In all probability, many more families may be less fortunate in only having one parent, be it a father or a mother.

I cannot imagine how someone with a widow for a mother would be offended by any mention that I visited my father over a weekend. No more so, can I imagine that a fellow with two mothers at home would be upset by such a reference to my father.
It is, of course, complete nonsense. Irrespective of our sex and sexual preferences, we are all quite capable and broad-minded enough to chat about what we did at the weekend without our colleagues being upset by references to our mothers and fathers, whether they possess such parents themselves or not.

What this is really about is given away by the earlier part of the instruction namely, to avoid mentioning anyone’s gender. What they seek is the abolition of the concept of fatherhood and motherhood in entirety, replacing it instead with a gender-free concept of parenthood.

Now, I’ve previously made clear in this column that I consider this concept of separating sex and gender as pretty nutty. Nevertheless, given my preference for freedom of expression, if people want to espouse this nonsense, that is entirely a matter for them. In my opinion they are entitled to believe that there are any number of genders. Just as I am entitled to recognise only two, male and female (whist keeping an open mind about hermaphrodites).

What is increasingly sinister however, is the attempt to bully those of us who reject this new ideology which suggests that life is not unlike a supermarket where you can choose your gender much as you choose a breakfast cereal.
Telling us we will upset others by using gender specific nouns like mother and father, is clearly an attempt to coerce us into abandoning them. Effectively it is telling us that polite and decent people don’t use those offensive words.

I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist, but I’ve begun to wonder if there is one.
Why is it that this new gender ideology is trying to purge us of everything that we have considered familiar, even normal?
I don’t know, but I’m working on it.

Will you make ending homelessness a priority? Email Campaign

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Through the Renters (Reform) Bill, the Government will abolish Section 21 evictions which will give tenants greater security without the threat of a ‘no fault’ eviction. There is also a firm commitment to delivering more social and genuinely affordable homes, underpinned by the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (2021-26) which will deliver tens of thousands of new homes. The Government has proposed amending national planning guidance to make clear that local planning authorities should place greater importance on social rent.  

The Government is investing £2 billion between 2022 and 2025 to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, targeted to areas where it is needed most. This will work alongside the ‘Ending Rough Sleeping for Good’ strategy which puts prevention at the heart of the Government’s plans to end rough sleeping once and for all. The strategy set an ambition for no one to leave a public institution – whether that’s a prison, hospital or care – to the streets. The Government is committed to reducing the need for temporary accommodation by preventing homelessness before it occurs. Since 2018, over 640,000 households have been prevented from becoming homeless or supported into settled accommodation through the Homelessness Reduction Act.

Rightly, Government funding for accommodation for people facing homelessness reflects the fact that there is no one size fits all approach. There is, for example, a £10 million Night Shelter Transformation Fund to increase the availability of quality single-room provision within the night shelter sector. Meanwhile, investment in longer-term housing solutions includes a new £200 million Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme which will deliver up to 2,400 homes and wrap-around support. 

DS

Green New Deal Email Campaign

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The Government is fully committed to reaching net zero by 2050. Ministers are taking a pragmatic, proportionate, and realistic approach to meeting net zero. The UK is committed to meeting our obligations under the agreements made in Paris and Glasgow to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The UK is going far beyond other countries in terms of our 2030 decarbonisation target and the transition to clean energy, delivering tangible progress while bringing down energy bills.

Further, the Government is going further for both households and investors by embracing new green industries. This includes bringing forward new reforms to energy infrastructure which will give the industry certainty, speed up planning for the most nationally significant projects to ensure that strategically important projects, or those ready first, will connect first. Ministers have also committed to a target to deliver up to 50GW of offshore wind by 2030, ensuring that the industry has confidence that the UK remains the best place to invest in offshore wind. In addition, the Government has announced new Future Fellowships, which will support our leading scientists and engineers to develop real and practical green technologies and is supported by up to £150 million of new funding.

Regarding nature, the Government has legally-binding targets to halt nature’s decline, clean up our air and rivers and support a circular economy. The UK played an instrumental role in a new global agreement for nature at the UN nature summit COP15 in December 2022. The Environmental Improvement Plan sets out how the Government will achieve its ambitious environmental targets and also includes a new commitment that everyone should be able to access green space or water within a 15-minute walk from their home, such as woodlands, wetlands, parks, and rivers.

The Government recognises that we cannot tackle climate change without protecting nature. The Prime Minister will set out the next stage in our ambitious environmental agenda ahead of COP28.

DS

“Your General Election Manifesto Must Put People and Planet First” Email Campaign

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Regarding energy, the Government remains firmly committed to its net zero target. However, oil and gas will be required in the transition to net zero; simply turning off the taps would mean we would have to import oil and gas, leaving us susceptible to global circumstances. Supporting the production of domestic oil and gas in the nearer term will be coupled with the accelerated deployment of wind, new nuclear, solar and hydrogen energy.

When it comes to food, the UK is largely self-sufficient in many products. Overall, we produce 61 per cent of all the food we need and 74 per cent of that which we are able to grow in the UK. This has been broadly stable for the past 20 years, and the Government’s Food Strategy commits to keeping it at broadly that level in future, with the potential to increase it in areas such as seafood and horticulture.

Further, significant investments are being made across the food system. This includes more than £120 million in the seafood fund; £270 million across the farming innovation programme; and £11 million to support new research to drive improvements in understanding the relationship between food and health. The Food Strategy will set the UK on a path to boosted food production, ensuring that everyone has access to healthy, affordable and sustainably produced food. The Environment Act 2021 is a robust piece of legislation through which Ministers have set targets to tackle some of the biggest pressures facing our environment. They will ensure progress on clean air, clean and plentiful water, less waste and more sustainable use of our resources, a step change in tree planting, a better marine environment, and a more diverse, resilient and healthy natural environment. In addition, the Act includes a new, historic legally binding target to halt the decline in species by 2030, as a core part of the Government’s commitment to leave the environment in a better state than we found it. The final targets were published and then approved by Parliament earlier this year.

Finally, the transport decarbonisation plan sets out how the UK plans to decarbonise public transport by 2050. The Government is accelerating the rollout of zero-emission buses and trains in order to deliver this; twelve hundred miles of railway have been electrified in England and Wales since 2010, and 4000 zero-emission buses have been funded across the UK.

DS

Don’t ban the breed – a better solution Email Campaign

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As you may be aware, owners who allow their dogs to terrorise people or other animals are already breaking the law, and there is already a full range of powers to apply penalties to owners who do not control their pets.

However, very sadly, fatal and serious dog attacks have risen sharply this year.  The American XL Bully-  seemingly prized as status symbols by some for their aggressive temperaments-  has been disproportionately involved in this rise. It is therefore only right that the Government takes decisive action to prevent these dogs from causing further harm.

Banning these dogs has been under consideration for some time, but this has been complicated by the fact that the XL Bully is not formally recognised as a breed in the UK. For this reason, the Environment Secretary and the Home Secretary will now urgently convene experts to define the American XL Bully breed type, including police, canine and veterinary experts, and animal welfare stakeholders. The Government will then legislate to add the XL Bully to the list of breeds banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. These changes are expected to be in place by the end of this year.

Of course, the existing population of XL Bullies will need to be safely managed, so an amnesty period will be introduced. It may reassure you to know that owners who come forward to register their XL Bully during the amnesty period will be able to keep their dog until the end of its life, provided they meet conditions such as neutering the dog and keeping it on a lead and muzzle in public. Any XL Bully owner who does not come forward to register during the amnesty period will be committing a criminal offence if they are subsequently found to be keeping an unregistered dog.

In the meantime, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will continue to work with the police, local authorities and animal welfare groups to help prevent future attacks by encouraging responsible dog ownership and to make sure the full force of the law is applied.

DS

Food Bank Usage Email Campaign

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Food banks are independent, charitable organisations, and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation. 

According to the latest Government statistics – published in the Family Resources Survey – most households in the UK were food secure in the financial year 2021-22, with high household food security (88 per cent) or marginal households food security (6 per cent). A minority of households were food insecure, with low household food security (3 per cent) or very low household food security (3 per cent).

Of all UK households surveyed, three per cent had used a food bank in the last 12 months, and one per cent of all households in the last 30 days.

The Government has put in place a set of measures to help people with the cost of living. On energy bills, the Government is maintaining the Energy Price Guarantee. This guarantee limits the amount you can be charged per unit of gas or electricity. The current price guarantee, set at £3,000, will support households between now and April 2024. Although energy prices are currently below the level at which EPG payments would be made, it will remain in force until the end of March 2024 to protect households from price spikes, putting in place a safety net for households up and down the country.

Furthermore, at the Autumn Statement 2022, the Government announced a substantial support package for the most vulnerable for 2023/24, including £300 Cost-of-Living Payments for pensioners, £150 for people on disability benefits, and £900 for people on means-tested benefits. The Government is also providing £1 billion of extra funding by extending the Household Support Fund to March 2024, bringing the total of the Fund to £2.5 billion. 

Both the State Pension and benefits were also increased by 10.1 per cent from April 2023, in line with inflation. This represents the biggest cash increase in the State Pension ever and an average uplift of around £600 for households receiving Universal Credit.

DS