Dame Glenys Stacey and Robbie McDonald from the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) recently joined ISEP members and other experts at an online roundtable to discuss the revision of England's Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) and the Government's parallel planning reforms. In this short blog, Ben Goodwin, ISEP's Director of Policy and Public Affairs, reflects on some of the key talking points.
ISEP was appointed as a member of Defra's advisory board for EIP revision in 2024 and we've been consistent with our insights around what we think would strengthen the plan.
Our key asks have included the need to improve the governance mechanisms that sit around the EIP, alongside the need to better ensure that it tallies with local approaches to nature recovery and that it is actionable for businesses across England. We've also called for the reform of the impact assessment regime in England that is being taken forward by MHCLG to effectively dovetail with the revised EIP.
In opening the roundtable discussion, OEP representatives pointed to their latest EIP progress report reiterating the need for the revised plan to set out a positive way forward on:
Other, cross-cutting, priorities set out in their publicly available report are that their must be clear investment pathways into the EIP goals, supported by appropriate regulatory conditions and effective private sector engagement.
There was broad support among roundtable attendees for these interventions, with a range of other insights also offered.
These included the need for the revised EIP to provide the glue that sticks together the myriad of environmental plans and strategies coming out of government into a cohesive whole, including things like Biodiversity Net Gain and the Nature Restoration Fund through to the Land Use Framework and forthcoming Environmental Outcomes Reports regime.
The discussion also considered the argument for developing an apex target for each of the10 EIP goal areas, noting that in some goal areas there are currently no statutory targets.
The need for developing the pipeline of skills and jobs that will underpin EIP delivery was also considered. In particular, the need to create clear career options at secondary education level. ISEP’s own EPQ is useful to consider in this specific context.
Finally, there was a shared belief that the revised EIP must be delivery focused and clearly aligned to a broad range of economic sectors, creating a winning situation for the both the natural environment and economic growth.
Ben is Director of Policy and Public Affairs at ISEP. In this capacity he looks after the delivery of ISEP's core policy, practice and public affairs activities across a range of environmental and sustainability issues. Prior to joining the organisation Ben worked in several similar policy roles at organisations including the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Renewable Energy Association.
