The government is “largely off track” to meet its Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) goal for clean and plentiful water.
That was among the findings of the Office for Environmental Protection’s (OEP) assessment of government progress between 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 towards the legally-binding environmental targets and goals set out in the EIP.
The watchdog found a mixed picture on past water trends (see table); mixed progress towards the water goal in the year; and the prospect of meeting targets, ambitions and commitments on clean and plentiful water largely off track.
This was part of a broader negative picture across the EIP’s ten goals. The OEP’s assessment of 40 individual environmental targets, including legally binding targets set under the Environment Act 2021, found government is largely on track to achieve four, partially on track to achieve 11, and largely off track to achieve ten. It was not possible to assess progress against a further 15 targets due to a lack of sufficient evidence.
The OEP’s assessment of 51 recent environmental trends found that 25 trends are improving, ten are static, eight are deteriorating and eight could not be assessed due to a lack of data.
OEP chair, Dame Glenys Stacey, told the government to speed up, scale up, make sure its plans stack up, and be more transparent.
The report pointed to some basic needs, including:
implement the EIP 2023 effectively;
develop and implement clear and effective governance;
develop and implement delivery plans;
set and vigorously pursue clear and achievable interim targets; and
develop and implement an effective monitoring, evaluation and learning framework.
Director of communications and advocacy at The Rivers Trust, Tessa Wardley, said: "The slow pace of progress and imbalanced, insufficient scale of delivery to secure clean and plentiful water is a particular, if unsurprising, concern, and we can only hope that this report is one that finally prompts the government to take leadership and treat our nature crisis with the proper sense of urgency.”
Chief of Wildlife and Countryside Link, Richard Benwell, said: “Government must double down on delivery of its nature promises or hopes of meeting the positive promises in the Environment Act will remain daydreams.”
• In its response to the January 2023 OEP report on progress on improving the natural environment, Defra pointed to the actions it took in 2023, including publishing the EIP, the Environmental Principles Policy Statement, and setting statutory targets.
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