11th November 2003
New countryside agency urged | |
|  | | Sustainable land use will be high on the agenda |
| | A more streamlined system for delivering rural and environmental services is being considered by the government.
It follows the publication of a major new report which calls for the creation of a new countryside agency. |
|  | | The government has announced major changes to the way services to rural areas and the environment are delivered.
A report published today recommended the creation of a new countryside body to promote sustainable use of land and the natural environment.
The new integrated agency would involve the merger of English Nature, with the Government's Rural Development Service and some functions of the Countryside Agency.
The proposals were put forward in a report from Lord Haskins, the Government's adviser on food and farming.
Lord Haskins insisted his plans would strengthen English Nature, rather than axe it, as green groups had feared.
He said the agency's remit should embrace bio-diversity, historical landscape, natural landscape, natural resources, access and recreation.
Lords Haskins said delivery of Government rural policy should operate at a regional and local level wherever possible.
 | | Lord Haskins is the Government's adviser on food and farming. |
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The role and remit of English Nature will strengthen.
"What the name of the new agency will be, I don't know. I would be quite glad to see it called English Nature."
"One of the main objectives I have is to strengthen the independence of organisations such as English Nature by separating them from Defra and the policy-making role by insisting on the importance of them giving independent advice to Whitehall.
"Under my arrangement, they will be heard much more clearly than they are at the present time."
The environment secretary Margaret Beckett has accepted the main proposals put forward by Lord Haskins, who said the current system is confused and uncoordinated.
In a written Commons statement, Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said that Lord Haskins' report was compelling.
"This echoes the concerns which led us to commission his report," she said.
"While we have already begun to address these concerns, this report helps us take our work forward.
"Shortly, we will be publishing a review - three years on - of the Rural White Paper alongside a study of economic performance in rural areas from Birkbeck College.
"In the New Year, drawing on the three reports we expect to publish a 'refreshed' rural strategy."
Mrs Beckett said her first priority was an immediate full review of rural funding schemes to provide a clearer and simpler framework for applicants to achieve a reduction in bureaucratic procedures.
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