Bruce Howard & Rachel Monaco Lasko comment on the value of the renewed Environmental Improvement Plan for England, published on 1st December 2025.

The way we make our case for change matters. That is why the latest green and blue grand plan from Westminster Government deserves attention.

The last decade has seen increasingly impassioned advocacy for the role of the natural environment in a strong economy. The latest Environmental Improvement Plan is evidence that the combined intellectual weight of this is cutting through. Tony Juniper CBE – Chair of Natural England and a long-time advocate of nature’s role in the economy – can take heart.

Setting the stage for action

Fair play. The Plan starts with a line about government not being able to do environmental improvement alone. This cuts with the grain of why we convened the Nature Finance UK Conference last week. This brought some of our largest financial institutions together with those who have a more direct role in the stewardship of land, water and nature. More broadly, it’s why the 4000-strong Ecosystems Knowledge Network has always involved so many professionals who wouldn’t see the natural environment as their primary concern. To this end, it is welcome that the Plan acknowledges the crucial role that land managers play in environmental improvement.

On the mark. The Plan mentions ‘system connections’ throughout. There is a section at the start on how the Environmental Improvement plan delivers on the missions of this particular HM Government. Connectedness is perhaps the defining characteristic of this latest statement on environment-related public policy. There is a reason for the word systems within ecosystems and it is great the Plan acknowledges this.

In the wake of any Plan, there is clearly a lot to get done. There are relationships to build. To this end, let’s remember that:

1. One generation enables (or limits) the works of another

We should remember that the first in the chain of these policy documents – produced in 2018 – was the 25 Year Environment Plan. We have Dieter Helm to thank for this. The reason for putting a quarter of a century in the title was that you can’t turn around our ‘natural capital’ (or measure its renewal) in less than a generation. Governments change colour more frequently. While there are plenty of targets in the Plan (and reference to the flashing red issue of long-term timber supply in the UK), the time horizon for this new Plan is far less explicit. Are we losing the sense of all of this being a truly inter-generational endeavour?

2. The UK is more than a four-piece jigsaw

The document acknowledges that “nature does not follow borders”. True. But the connectedness of our jurisdictions is far more than bird migrations and the flow of rivers. Through trade in timber and food, via the flow of people and culture, England has a complex interface with the three other jurisdictions of the UK. This extends to the Republic of Ireland and the rest of Europe. Is now the time to be more specific on the action that neighbouring governments can take together? Nature markets, for example, require this collaboration: well-intentioned London firms are buying Scottish peatland carbon credits.

3. ‘Nature’ is here to serve and not to conquer

A canny ‘wheel’ diagram in the new Environmental Improvement Plan shows how the whole suite of Defra priorities revolves around a “nature” hub. This will warm the hearts of countless nature enthusiasts. (Hang up your binoculars, friends, and pour yourselves a sustainably-sourced hot chocolate.) But, wait. Alongside this, the Plan also states very clearly that ‘nature’ “drives”, “enables” and “protects” economic growth. The question must now surely be how to ensure that nature features in the policy diagrams produced by government departments that work to other agendas. Nature does not need to be at the centre. It just needs to be somewhere. A hint to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: think about how good “green infrastructure” can improve safety in our streets and reduce crime. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport can ponder how to ensure that our favourite sports grounds aren’t flooded on match day. And to Department for Energy Security and Net Zero: make sure that the ongoing degradation of peatland doesn’t undermine everyone’s net zero effort.

So what now?

This latest Environmental Improvement Plan for England helps us to see that the green and blue on our doorstep doesn’t just colour our lives. No, it powers and de-risks our lives too. We now have a shiny new document to advocate this (albeit centred on just one part of our islands).

The challenge now is to sell this Plan as an opportunity to the neighbours around Westminster. And to make it chime with the neighbours in all those treeless blocks of flats further afield. And to perk up all those who’d rather just talk about football and the cost of living.