I’ve been trying to work out if the Government are on track to meet their ambitious target to create or restore 250,000 hectares of habitats outside protected sites by 2030, announced yesterday. Turns out the Government themselves don’t yet have a way of measuring this! www.gov.uk/government/p...

The Environmental Improvement Plan is out🎉 We took the Government to court over the last one. This time, warm words won’t cut it – nature needs delivery. 1/5 🧵

The government’s Environmental Improvement Plan was published 1st Jan. It makes lots of “Commitments”, but the “Actions” to achieve them don’t often seem to be enough. Progress is not being properly measured for some ‘Commitments’, so they cannot be serious about them. 🧵 www.gov.uk/government/p...

As COP30 limped to its unimpressive conclusion we know we cannot rely on current governments to prevent catastrophic climate change. In UK only the Green Party has policies committing us to returning to living within the ‘Planetary Boundaries’ needed . www.stockholmresilience.org/research/pla...

Green Party of England & Wales welcomes land reforms passed in Scottish Parliament, giving rights to local communities to buy estates for sale. Estates could be split into small plots. We want more equality of access. Land should not be capital investment for the rich. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The 'Nature's Right's Bill' is being proposed by Natalie Bennett. It should be underpinned by 'Planetary Boundaries' as set out by the Stockholm Resilience Centre. The Green Party supports the Planetary Boundaries which should be respected in all areas of policy.

New Green Party policy of a target that 25% of every square kilometre should be designated for nature will be applied flexibly in urban areas. Authorities will have time to make plans to increase green spaces, green roofs, more natural driveways etc. Focus will be on the most nature deprived areas.

Last month a DEFRA statement said it is "strengthening" it's commitment to biodiversity, with target of 500,000ha of wildlife rich habitat by 2042. It says it "aims" to support the UN '30:30'.This shows that DEFRA is not genuinely committed because 7m ha is needed to achieve 30:30 in UK. 🧵

The UK government is legally committed to devote 30% of land for nature by 2030, but doesn't have policies to achieve this. An empty promise. Much land designated as "improving" its biodiversity isn't improving according to the Wildlife Trusts and others so shouldn't be counted towards the target.🧵

The late Dave Wetzel was a great advocate of Land Value Tax. LVT would help to break down the highly concentrated ownership of land in UK and motivate careful use of land and raise revenue. The current government is unlikely to even implement a wealth tax in the coming budget.

Green Party welcomes government plans to open up the Land Registry more to the public, increasing transparency. Our policy is that the beneficial owner of any UK land should be registered within set period of time, after which land with no registered owner should pass into public ownership.

The government’s commitment to halve sewage pollution of rivers by 2030, and halve phosphorous by 2028 are weak. Few details of where £104b of private investment to tackle pollution is coming from. Will it just be added to our water bills? The Green Party would nationalise the water companies. 🧵

The sea is a very valuable resource which we should all benefit from. The Crown Estate owns the territorial seabed around UK to 22 kilometres out to sea. The Green Party thinks the Crown Estate should bebrought not only under public management, but into public ownership. It should belong to us all.

Green Party Policy is to increase the area of tree cover in England & Wales to 30-40% within 10 years. Currently 13%. Most EU countries already at 30-40%. International tree cover average is 31%.

The Green Party agrees with @guyshrubsole that owners of all land must be declared on an open Land Register, including the name and address of the true beneficial owners at the end of any chain of ownership. This is current GP policy. There should be a time limit for registering with consequences.

@carbonbrief.org reports that many scientists + negotiators on reversing biodiversity loss at COP16 feel “the world may have set itself an unachievable nature target”. Green Party strongly believes targets set must be based on what scientists say is necessary, not on what is considered achievable.🧵

DEFRA budget for sustainable farming and nature recovery was cut by £100m in the Spending Review. The Green Party would spend twice the £2.7bn per year promised from 2026 to 2029 to support the transition to nature-friendly farming. Total cuts to DEFRA were 15% in real terms.

Green Party policy is that all freehold ownership of land should have attached to it an inseparable obligation to steward the land to protect nature now, and for future generations. An infrastructure will be set up to implement stewardship, inform people about it and monitor it. 🧵

Green Party believes that on 30% of our land nature must be very highly protected. On the other 70% nature should still be protected. There should be no nature dead zones.

We responded to the recent government consultation on “Our Vision for Land Use in England” (a ‘land use framework’). See a summary of the Green Party opinion on the government land use framework in the thread below: 🧵

The Green Party supports Wild Justice’s opposition to burning peat. Peatland must be restored as quickly as possible to a near natural condition. Burning it is incompatible with this. The consultation ends 25th May. www.gov.uk/government/c...

The uses to which land is put shouldn't be left to the free market. There should be a national plan to ensure nature is protected and the proportion of our food we grow ourselves is increased. Targets for change should be delegated to regions. It should be decided locally how the plan is implemented

This is how UK land is currently used. To protect biodiversity, increase our self-sufficiency in food and increase our timber and fabric production, this must change. Government needs to plan what our land use in 10 years should look like, and create incentives / policies to achieve that transition

We are a group of Green Party members which discusses Land Use policy. Any member can participate. You can join the Green Party using this link: join.greenparty.org.uk Members can log-in to see current policies: policy.greenparty.org.uk

Green Party supports the 2030 targets of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Target 3 calls for conservation of 30% of land for nature by 2030. UK currently under 10% - perhaps only 3% if only land in favourable condition counted. We call for a large step up in action to meet the target.

Published and promoted by Anne Gayfer on behalf of the Green Party of England & Wales at The Green Party, PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

The government consultation closes on 25th April. To participate go to consult.defra.gov.uk/land-use-fra...

Please also see @guyshrubsole.bsky.social's excellent and detailed response, which answers some of the questions I’ve skipped, especially those on data. (Some of the other questions are quite repetitive, and their selection downright strange at times). whoownsengland.org/2025/03/12/m... 3/3

We are a group of Green Party members which discusses Land Use policy. Any member can participate. You can join the Green Party using this link: join.greenparty.org.uk Members can log-in to see current policies: policy.greenparty.org.uk