The roundtable discussion was an opportunity for IEMA members to set out their views to an influential select committee chair in this space on what the revised EIP should look like to deliver the best outcomes for the natural environment.

It was also an opportunity to hear from the EAC Chair who began his opening remarks with reference to the back-to-back OEP reports that have highlighted the poor progress being made across the EIP goals.

Getting nature friendly farming firing was a priority for the former Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs as was ensuring that the new BNG regime that came into force last year works effectively with the Government’s proposals for planning reform.

Roundtable participants –  including IEMA members, business interest groups and environmental NGOs –  shared a range of different views on what they would like to see in the revised EIP, alongside their reflections on how to ensure that its launch is more successful than previous iterations.

This began with a clear call for the revised EIP to be delivery focused i.e. not in the abstract, but prepared in a way that is business friendly, with its practical application positioned as the priority.

Other contributions considered the need for the EIP to be effectively understood across all of government and seen as a vehicle that can join the nature agenda with the government’s growth aspirations.

More granular thoughts included the need to raise the profile of soil health in the EIP, given the important role that it plays in supporting a range of ecosystem services, whilst others highlighted the need for greater clarity on monitoring and measuring EIP goal delivery.

A lot of the discussion chimed with what IEMA would like to see from the revised EIP, including better governance arrangements, a clearer strategy for joining up national goals with local efforts on nature recovery, and of course ensuring that we have a plan for developing the workforce that is going to be required to deliver all of this.   

On the workforce point, we maintain that the Government should establish a permanent cross-government body that takes a strategic approach to delivering green skills and jobs growth in the economy that is tied to our long-term climate and environmental goals.

This should result in the publication of a Green Jobs Plan, setting out how investment in green jobs and skills will be channelled across different economic sectors so that we have a workforce that can deliver the green economy of the future.