Green Tories pitch environmental manifesto into Conservative leadership contest

The Conservative Environment Network (CEN) has pitched for their party to “remain steadfast on the fundamental conservative principle of environmental stewardship, embrace the party’s green record, and set out a conservative plan to protect and enhance the environment,” as the Tory leadership contest gets underway and the party debates its future direction.

CEN has produced a manifesto advocating 90 green policies which it said will: save households money; unlock growth through private investment; improve local communities by reducing pollution and expanding access to nature; restore iconic British species and landscapes; make the UK safer and secure; and enhance the UK’s standing on the international stage.

On water, CEN championed the following: 

• Implement the Plan for Water’s commitment to require new developments to have sustainable drainage systems. 

• Ring-fence water company fines to fund a nationwide set of projects to restore the natural functioning of river systems, including the removal of dams, culverts and weirs and the re-wiggling of rivers. 

• Producers of fats, oils, greases, wipes and other commonly mis-flushed items should fund a fatberg-fighting expert task force which would allocate funds for relevant projects, research and innovation and devise a product label to raise consumer awareness. 

• Build new reservoirs and allow water companies to use novel financing mechanisms to deliver them more cheaply. 

• Require washing machine manufacturers to include a micro-plastic filter in every product. 

• Reform the bathing water regime to include year-round monitoring and meaningful designations.

• Adopt outcome-based water regulation, with new catchment-level targets, plans and governance. This would increase flexibility, tailor solutions to local priorities, rationalise regulations, reduce the costs of compliance, encourage innovation and support nature-friendly solutions, while ensuring the full range of pollutants is reduced. Ministers should ensure regulators have clear guidance that encourages them to authorise nature-based solutions to meet the new outcome-based regulatory requirements.