Five speakers on a panel sit at a long desk facing a room

Nature can help deliver the Government’s priorities

At the Labour Party Conference 2024 in Liverpool, a panel of experts brought together by The Rivers Trust sought to answer the question How can Labour rescue Britain’s rivers without breaking the bank?’

The Rivers Trust

14/10/24

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On Tuesday 24th September at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, a panel of experts brought together by The Rivers Trust sought to answer the question 'How can Labour rescue Britain’s rivers without breaking the bank?’ Having put sewage pollution at the heart of their election campaign and identifying cleaning up rivers, lakes, and seas as the top priority for Defra, the new Labour Government must now deliver meaningful improvements to our precious water environment. The question is, how will this be possible in the context of competing social and economic priorities and a tight fiscal environment? The answer our speakers arrived at; by working with each other and nature.

The Rivers Trust’s Chief Executive Mark Lloyd spoke alongside the Minister for Water and Flooding Emma Hardy and Alex Mayer, MP for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard. Further panellists representing key sectors were Jo Harrison, Asset Management Director at United Utilities, and Victoria Vyvyan, President of the Country Land and Business Association. The event was chaired by Claire Ellicott, Daily Mail Whitehall Editor. The speakers looked to their own sectors when highlighting the range of nature-based and catchment-scale solutions available; sustainable drainage in local urban areas, farm interventions to reduce nutrient pollution, leaky dams to slow the flow of water and reduce downstream flood risk. We heard how Rivers Trusts and farmers are primed to deliver real change on the ground, and Mark Lloyd highlighted the opportunities that that lie in blending public, water industry, and private finance to properly fund this work.

All speakers reflected on the importance of taking a collaborative, joined-up approach to solving the UK’s water challenges and Minister Hardy confirmed that the Government will be putting catchment-based management at the centre of their water review, presenting a promising opportunity to strengthen the case for nature-based, integrated water management. The Rivers Trust movement and our partners have been banging this particular drum committedly, so we welcome the positive signals we are getting from Government that they will help put the enabling mechanisms in place. We are clear: nature-based solutions, planned and implemented at catchment-scale, will deliver for our environment, communities, and economy, and must play a role in achieving the government’s priorities.

If you are interested to see the event in full, we have shared a recording at the bottom of this page and on our YouTube channel

Five speakers on a panel sit at a long desk facing a room
Speakers: Mark Lloyd, Emma Hardy MP, Claire Ellicott, Jo Harrison, Alex Mayer MP, Victoria Vyvayan

What can nature-based solutions do for us?

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) work with nature to protect, restore and sustainably manage ecosystems, while also addressing social, economic and other environmental challenges. Common examples of NbS include wetlands, buffer zones, tree planting and leaky dams. Implemented strategically as part of a catchment management approach, NbS can address issues including flood risk, water security and biodiversity loss, whilst delivering positive outcomes for community health and wellbeing.

Therefore, NbS should play an integral role in Government’s plans to meet their priorities on the environment, society and economy, especially as they are often less expensive than traditional or engineered approaches. In July, the new Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, set out his department’s five core priorities covering the health of the water environment, farming and food security, flood risk management, zero-waste ambitions, and wider nature recovery. It is clear to us at The Rivers Trust that NbS must be part of plans to achieve these. Tree and hedge planting, buffer strips along rivers, restored soils, sustainable drainage systems and restored wetlands can all play a vital role in purifying precious water resources, reducing flood risk and the pressure on sewers, promoting food security, and providing space for nature. All this while reducing our reliance on concrete, chemicals, and carbon, putting us on a better track to achieving net zero and a zero-waste economy.

Indeed, a thriving natural environment is integral to a resilient economy, meaning NbS can play a key role in delivering Labour’s headline commitment to economic stability. Nature degradation could cause a 12% loss to UK GDP, and all of our ecosystem assets, and the benefits they provide, are at high or medium-high risk. This paints a stark picture about the need to urgently put nature recovery at the heart of economic strategies. NbS can actively drive economic success by creating significant numbers of jobs, reducing impacts of climate-related floods and droughts on businesses, and reducing the burden on the health system.

Critically, we are confident that the public would back the Government’s increased use of NbS, as a recent survey by Consumer Council for Water found customers were prepared to pay more for these solutions in order to see environmental improvements alongside water services. This shows that there is a real appetite for NbS and therefore significant opportunities that Government could harness by backing these innovative, nature-friendly solutions. In this case in particular, Government has a mandate from water customers to challenge Ofwat and water companies to prioritise NbS and be transparent about how bills are paying for environmental outcomes.

What is holding back nature-based solutions?

Despite the varied benefits they can provide, NbS are still not business-as-usual for Government, businesses, or regulators. A lack of Government buy-in, a complex regulatory environment, and limited financial incentives are among the factors preventing widespread implementation. In response to this, The Rivers Trust is working with partners in the Mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions programme (MNBS) to identify and break down barriers to large-scale NbS roll-out. By testing investible NbS propositions across the UK, exploring a common approach to assessing the total value of NbS projects, and building standardised tools and processes for NbS creation and management, MNBS aims to enable the greater understanding and adoption of these solutions.

We need Government to back this work so that NbS become an integral part of our policy, regulatory, business and financial approaches. At the same time, Government must act boldly and pursue opportunities to implement NbS now, wherever possible. We urge Government to start enabling the wider implementation of NbS as part of its exploration of catchment-based management in the upcoming water review.

The Rivers Trust, MNBS partners, and speakers at the Labour Party Conference event are unanimous in their conviction; we must work together, through a catchment-based approach, to implement NbS that will help Government achieve their priorities despite strained public finances, and deliver for the environment, communities, and the economy.

Find out more about the Mainstreaming Nature Based Solutions programme here.

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