Locals agree with MP Pow's concerns over Truss' environment plan

She is rightly concerned about Truss’ new government dismantling some good environmental initiatives, such as an Environmental Land Management Scheme, and the lack of engagement with nature groups.

These concerns were also expressed by Dixie Darch in last week’s Postbag, “Climate crisis”.

In her extraordinary conference speech last week, Liz Truss made an attack on an “anti-growth coalition”, which encompassed a vast array of her pet hates that included Remainers, protesters, pundits and the green lobby.  

To pit the economy and the environment against each other really is absurd. I would guess that many conservatives are alarmed by this, especially as many of them are members of respected environmental bodies, such as the National Trust, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and Rivers Trust.

Truss, though, has form. She was Secretary of State at Defra from 2014 to 2016, and she has made much of her record of delivering “efficiencies”.

Today our rivers are in an appalling state and she certainly has played her part.

According to the National Audit Office, “From 2010/11 to 2019/20, the core grant-in-aid from which the Environment Agency’s enforcement work is funded reduced by 80% from £117m to £23m” (Environmental Compliance and Enforcement report 24/5/22), and a substantial part of these cuts (£24m) were made between 2014 to 2016.

She even boasted in parliament (10/9/15), “Over the previous parliament, we cut guidance [to farmers] by 80% and we reduced farm inspections by 34,000 every year, but we want to do more in this parliament.”

I had believed that you could not get a worse prime minister than Johnson. However, I was wrong.

In little over a month, the Truss regime has spooked markets (and had to be baled out by the Bank of England), further damaged our reputation on the world stage and severely impacted long term growth.

It is also out of sync with the overwhelming majority of the public.

David Lausen
Staplegrove