'Patchy' joint department work risks environment projects that make problems worse, watchdog says

The Government's "patchy" arrangements for joint department working on environment strategy risks projects that do more harm than good being commissioned, a damning spending watchdog report has found.

The National Audit Office warned of "perverse outcomes" such as planting trees in inappropriate places due to a lack of central leadership and coordination between government departments.

A lack of clarity on cost and objectives put the Government's much-publicised efforts to improve the environment in jeopardy, the watchdog said. 

Poorly-planned tree-planting is often embraced by organisations pursuing a net-zero strategy but can be detrimental to nature.

In February Nestlé was forced to apologise after it accidentally destroyed a meadow filled with rare wild flowers by planting it with saplings as part of an eco-drive.   

Biomass fuels, which are a growing energy source in the UK, also face criticism for transferring environmental risk overseas by causing deforestation and pushing up food prices, the NAO said. 

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said "significant action" was needed to meet ambitious goals like meeting legal emissions targets for air pollution and achieving zero affordable waste by 2050. 

"The government wants this to be the first generation to leave the natural environment in England in a better state than it inherited. 

"However, it is now nine years since the government set this ambition and it still does not have the right framework to achieve it," he said. 

While individual government departments keep track of their spending on environmental measures, there is no centralised monitoring, the report found, and there is a risk that funding decisions are made in a "piecemeal" way. 

"Government does not monitor total historic and forecast spend on delivering its environmental goals, and it is not straightforward to estimate because of the range of activities and organisations involved," the report said, adding that arrangements for work between departments on environmental issues were "patchy".  

Environment plans are "a mixture of aspirations, legally binding targets and policy commitments, with varying and unclear timescales," it added. 

It said it was also unclear how existing commitments and targets would interact with the Environment Bill currently progressing through Parliament. 

The 25-year environment plan, launched in January 2018, is not a priority beyond the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the NAO said, with no other department mentioning it in its objectives. 

Philip Dunne MP, chair of the environmental audit committee, said environmental policy lacked "cohesion". 

"We need to see the Government’s rhetoric turned into action if we are to have any hope of reaching net-zero carbon emissions," he said.

A separate report from the think tank Green Alliance criticised spending including £14bn on roads and £3bn on infrastructure to burn waste for energy, arguing that it went against the government's zero-carbon ambitions. It said a "net zero test" should be applied to all government decisions.

Caterina Brandmayr, head of climate policy, said: "Decisions taken now will govern all of our choices for decades to come and determine how green our society can be."

A government spokeswoman said: "We are leading the world in protecting the natural environment and combatting climate change, and have made significant progress implementing our 25 Year Environment Plan for a greener future.

"Our landmark Environment Bill will go further by enshrining environmental targets for our air quality and biodiversity into law."