Yesterday was a tough day for Defra with their departmental budget cuts; that will need some creative business planning over the coming months. It will be key to outcomes on water and land to ensure that the Environment Agency and Natural England are funded and directed well to provide a strong regulatory and enforcement function.

The good news for the environment came from an unexpected quarter in the form of healthier than expected farming and flood budgets. The crucial next step will be to ensure that they are spent well and deliver the much-needed outcomes: for healthy and resilient river corridors to withstand increasingly variable weather patterns with extremes of high and low rainfall and high temperatures; to protect our farmland, nature and communities into the future.

Tessa Wardley, Director of Communications & Advocacy