A decade of austerity with pay cuts, budget cuts, cuts to grants
and a decline in staff numbers is putting England’s natural
heritage at risk. That is the finding of the second report by
Prospect into the State of Natural England which shows that the
agency does not have the resources it needs to continue to
adequately fulfil its responsibilities. The first report was
published in 2019.
Over the past two years Prospect, the main union for workers in
Natural England, has spoken to its members about their
experiences at work, analysed budgets and grants, and assessed
programmes. What we have found is an agency getting beyond crisis
point.
Natural England is the body responsible for maintaining and
protecting England’s natural environment. It is responsible for:
protected sites such as national parks and Sites of Special
Scientific Interest; countryside stewardship, helping farmers and
landowners enhance the biodiversity of their lands; planning and
development policy; the marine environment; ramblers’ favourites
like the England Coast Path, and many more things which make our
natural heritage what it is.
Natural England is at risk because its funding has been slashed
and its workforce reduced. Natural England’s government-funded
Grant in Aid budget has declined by 49% in six years and almost
two-thirds over a decade. Over that time the agency has gone from
more than 2,500 staff in 2010 to, we estimate, around 1,900 staff
now.
Workers in Natural England were subject to a 1% pay cap for eight
years. This has improved this year but the increase comes nowhere
close making up for the real-terms losses of the past decade.
There is also an 8.4% gender pay gap which shows little sign of
being reduced.
This is the reality of government austerity and its effect on
agency staff – highly qualified workers facing financial
hardship, increased workloads, loss of pension accrual, terrible
morale and looking to move elsewhere for a better deal.
Successive ministers have made things worse by undermining and
attacking the independence of the work of agency experts.
Prospect is calling for:
- Natural England’s wide and important remit for people, nature
and the green recovery, to be properly recognised and funded.
- It’s autonomy as a non-departmental public body to be
meaningfully restored.
- The damage caused by the pay cap to be reversed and pay
progression and pay equality, to be restored.
- To achieve pay parity with the rest of Defra, particularly
for pay scale minima and maxima.
- To no longer be covered by the civil service pay guidance and
be subject to an independent pay review body.
Mike Clancy, Prospect general secretary, said:
“There is a yawning gap between the government’s rhetoric on
climate change, the environment and biodiversity and the reality
of years of underfunding our environmental agencies.
“Protecting nature means investing in the people who do that
work. Natural England is at the heart of this agenda but it can
only be effective if it is properly funded and the importance of
its staff properly recognised.
“The disproportionate cuts, out-dated and unfit pay framework,
and significant pay inequality all need to be addressed. The UK
has a world-class natural environment which is treasured by the
public, but this natural heritage will suffer if the expert
custodians of our natural heritage continue to be treated as
second class public servants.”
