Inaccurate coverage of Environment Agency investigation at Lake Windermere
Today we are looking at inaccurate coverage of the Environment Agency's involvement in a pollution incident at Bowness-on-Windermere.
Updated: Wed May 15 2024
Introducing Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare grants
Next month, a new grant for hen housing will be available to laying hen and pullet farmers in England with flocks of 1,000 birds or more. We've just published the guidance for the grant on GOV.UK. In this post we'll share an overview of the grant and a link to the guidance.
Updated: Wed May 15 2024
Nature Returns - Interim Report
By Mike Morecroft, Deputy Director, Climate Change Science We've just published an interim report on the Nature Returns programme today (15 May 2024), our flagship £17m programme to build the evidence for nature-based solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss. ...
Updated: Wed May 15 2024
A new interactive website for our National Character Area profiles
By Sally Marshall, Principal Landscape Adviser, Natural England Today (14 May 2024) we are excited to be launching a new interactive website for England's National Character Areas (NCAs). This latest chapter in the long history of NCAs makes the valued ...
Updated: Tue May 14 2024
Funding available for nutrient management solutions
Through the £15 million Nutrient Management competition, we're offering funding to develop solutions which address the challenges related to nutrient management in soils and water associated with agricultural livestock and crop production. In this post, I'll share links to the guidance so you can prepare for the competition opening on 29 May.
Updated: Tue May 14 2024
Plant Health Week 2024: Live Tree Health Clinic
For Plant Health Week 2024, our panel of experts from the Forestry Commission, Forest Research, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Observatree led a live Tree Health Clinic Q&A on X (formerly Twitter) to answer questions and offer advice about tree health.
Updated: Tue May 14 2024
Wet weather and temporary adjustments to agri-environment agreements
Heavy rainfall has a devastating and long-term impact on farming. This disruption not only affects livelihoods but also has wider implications for food security and the economy too. We're introducing temporary adjustments and easements within the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), the SFI Pilot, Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (ES) to support farmers and land managers dealing with the impacts of severe weather in England.
Updated: Tue May 14 2024
Coverage of the 27 new bathing water designations across England
There has been widespread coverage of the government's announcement that 27 new bathing water sites will be designated across England. Coverage includes BBC, ITV, The Guardian, The Telegraph, iNews, The Times and Daily Mail.
Updated: Mon May 13 2024
Into the Woods: Spring Bluebells
Introducing "Into the woods" our new blog series where staff members share their adventures in England's woodlands. Join us this month to look at spring bluebells at Marbury Country Park.
Updated: Mon May 13 2024
The Sustainable Farming Incentive: stats to know
Today, we updated the data showing the uptake of actions in Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and the uptake of options in Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (CS). In this post, I'll share an overview of the data for the Sustainable Farming Offer in 2023. I'll also include some findings from research we conducted with around 500 SFI agreement holders, advisers and stakeholders.
Updated: Mon May 13 2024
Changes to permitted development rights
We want to make it easier for farmers to strengthen their businesses. To that end, several changes to permitted development rights are coming into effect from 21 May.
Updated: Fri May 10 2024
Inaccurate claims in the OEP Report reviewing the implementation of River Basin Management Planning in England
Today the Office for Environmental Protection published a report on legal targets to improve water health. The report claims that report claims that "the EA has calculated a cost of £51 billion to achieve the targets... but there is only confirmed funding of £6.2 billion up to 2027". This is incorrect. In October 2023, the water industry announced a planned £96 billion of investment between 2025 and 2030 to deliver significant environmental improvements, including tackling nutrient pollution and reducing the use of storm overflows. Ofwat is currently considering these proposals.
Updated: Fri May 10 2024
Natural England's Nutrient Mitigation Scheme expects to enable around 3,700 homes and help nature recovery in Dorset
In October last year we provided reassurance that Natural England will not only continue to deliver the Nutrient Mitigation Scheme but seek to accelerate and widen it. That hard work has brought us to our next major milestone - launching ...
Updated: Fri May 10 2024
Responding to ash dieback: assessing your risk and what you can do
Find out how to respond to the risks of ash dieback effectively and the support available.
Updated: Fri May 10 2024
Working in partnership to enhance approaches to surface water risk management
In recent years, record rainfall events nationally and internationally have served to underline the threat of surface water flooding, particularly to our cities and urban areas, writes Caroline Douglass, Environment Agency Executive Director of Flood and Coastal Risk Management. Examples ...
Updated: Fri May 10 2024
Coverage of Defra's Response to Independent Review into Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain
There has been widespread media coverage following our announcement of new measures to address labour shortages in the food supply chain. The news was reported by publications including The Telegraph, Farmers Guardian, Farmers Weekly, Horticulture Week, The Grocer and Farming UK.
Updated: Thu May 09 2024
The EA-funded farm group bringing people together to improve sustainability
The Environment Agency (EA) have funded a project to engage and work with farmers in the Upper Roding Catchment. We've worked in collaboration with the project lead, environmental charity Thames21, and the Roding, Beam and Ingrebourne (RBI) Catchment Partnership to ...
Updated: Thu May 09 2024
Coverage of Bluetongue virus risk
There has been widespread coverage of our announcement that there is a very high probability of a new introduction of bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3) into livestock in Great Britain this year. This was reported by publications including BBC ...
Updated: Wed May 08 2024
Coverage of Thames Barrier celebrating 40 years protecting London
Today we are looking at coverage marking 40 years of the Thames Barrier protecting London and the Thames Estuary
Updated: Wed May 08 2024
Operation Angola - we need your help
Emma Viner, Enforcement and Investigations Manager, writes about just one of the many waste crime investigations the Environment Agency is dealing with. Waste crime is a major issue across the country which is often not fully understood. The Environmental Services ...
Updated: Wed May 08 2024
Landscape Recovery: The Waveney and Little Ouse Recovery Project
Our project, the Waveney and Little Ouse Landscape Recovery Project, sits on the headwaters of the 2 rivers, covering over 1,600 hectares between the towns of Diss on the Waveney and Thetford on the Little Ouse. The project seeks an opportunity to realise the invaluable services our floodplains provide. In this post, I'll share an overview of our work.
Updated: Mon Apr 29 2024
Avian Influenza in US cattle
In today's blog we look at media coverage of highly pathogenic avian influenza in dairy cattle in the United States.
Updated: Fri Apr 26 2024
Coverage about the cost of new border checks
Today's blog outlines the government response to recent coverage on the potential cost of new border checks
Updated: Fri Apr 26 2024
A high five for everyone driving Nature recovery - but we must not rest on our laurels
Tony Juniper CBE, Chair of Natural England Today marks five years since I became Chair of Natural England, which seems to me an appropriate point at which to take stock of the important progress made towards recovering Nature in that ...
Updated: Wed Apr 24 2024
Our response to the Rock Review: one year on
Our response to the Rock Review set out our commitments in light of its recommendations. It is now one year since we published our response. And, of the 75 commitments, we have completed or are working on 64. In this post, we'll summarise the progress we have made over the last year. We also shine a light on the role of the Farm Tenancy Forum and the collaborative approach of one farm in Oxfordshire.
Updated: Wed Apr 24 2024