National Trust Policy & Advocacy blog

After over 200 days of absence, today the Environment Bill finally returns to Parliament. Getting the detail right over the coming months will be vital in ensuring this cornerstone of the Government’s environmental agenda really delivers the step change nature needs. Here we share some views on what needs to happen next.

Today we’ve made a joint call to Defra Secretary of State George Eustice urging him to take action to unleash the potential of designated landscapes for people, climate and nature.

We’ve responded to the Government’s consultation on the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review. In this blog we share six key areas we believe the UK Government needs to invest in to get the best outcomes for people and places, nature and heritage and the economy alike.

Yesterdays's announcement from the Prime Minister that the UK will aim to protect 30 per cent of land for nature by 2030, including 4,000 km2 of new land for nature in England, is a welcome pick-me-up for those who care about nature, especially after recent reports on the UK missing most of its biodiversity targets and the state of its waterways.

Recent history is seemingly repeating itself, with yet more storms and flooding in recent weeks. In the last six months, we have experienced frequent high levels of rainfall with extraordinary quantities of water; inundating homes and affecting the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people. It felt like the devastating floods of 2007 and 2014 were happening all over again.

Dozens of people holding flaming torches and banging pots and pans attended our recent village wassail. This ritual awakens the trees for the year to come. By ‘breathing in’ every year, deciduous trees draw down carbon from the atmosphere. They are a silent, efficient and beautiful carbon sequestering technology beyond the design of humans.

At the National Trust we’re working to address climate change. In the next 10 years we are reducing our own emissions further, planting 20 million more trees and capturing more carbon in our land to become carbon net zero by 2030. <br><br> Yet, the places we look after can also help explore the history of climate change. From stately homes to coast and countryside, the stories in this blog ...

With just two weeks to go until the general election, all the parties have now set out their plans in their manifestos. In this blog, we look more closely at what they say on heritage and nature.

When the National Trust was founded almost 125 years ago, it was on the idea that people need historic, beautiful and natural places, a principle that still guides us in everything we do today. <br> <br/> In that age of rapid Victorian expansion, our founders wanted to protect special places for the benefit of everyone. In fact, some of our earliest acquisitions were areas of open ...

Last week, a new session of Parliament began with the Queen’s Speech setting out the Government’s plan for legislation. What’s unusual about this year is the emphasis on Bills to improve the environment. So why this focus on nature, and what’s the National Trust got to do with it?