Only last month, in response to an open letter from almost 200 organisations, Ministers assured Parliament that government “had no plans to repeal the protected landscapes duty”.

The protected landscapes duty is not and has not been an impediment to nuclear development in England. The task force’s report does not set out any evidence to the contrary.

The protected landscapes duty is intended to galvanise all of England’s public bodies and statutory undertakers to take active, positive steps to advance environmental stewardship of National Landscapes and National Parks, which cover 25% of England’s land area. In practice it requires organisations to take steps to ensure their actions don’t harm or pollute and that planning and development decisions properly consider the impact on the landscape: an outcome with broad support from voters across the political spectrum.

Any move to repeal or constrain the duty would constitute a serious regression in environmental, social, and governance terms, with far-reaching reputational consequences for UK Government and, in this case, the UK’s nuclear sector. It would compromise Government’s ability to meet challenging but justified targets set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) and would counterproductively set the environmental sector against nuclear development.

We are clear: the protected landscapes duty is a crucial mechanism that brings environmental, social and economic interests round the table, enabling early conversations for the best possible decisions. Early conversations between protected landscapes bodies, planning authorities and developers will lock good environmental design, long-term sustainability and landscape and nature considerations into the UK’s necessary development. Since its introduction the duty has helped foster unprecedented collaboration between public bodies. The Great Grid upgrade project has seen National Grid engage positively with the team at Dedham Vale National Landscape resulting in a proposal to fund £2.5m of projects benefiting nature, climate and people to enable National Grid to demonstrate that they have met their responsibilities.    

We have written to Secretaries of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to urge them to stand firm and offer us reassurance that the Government has no plans to repeal or water down this important legal duty.