Our letter to the Prime Minister. See full text and list of signatories here.
By Sally Nex, Peat-free Partnership
Today we publish a ground-breaking open letter to the Prime Minster, Sir Keir Starmer, urging him to bring an end to years of business uncertainty and create a level playing field for all by bringing in legislation to end peat sales in horticulture.
This is a letter with a difference. It is signed by over 100 supporters – the majority of them businesses involved in horticulture.
They include some of the UK’s biggest retailers: B&Q and Co-op supermarkets which between them sell pallet loads of bagged compost and millions of plants to customers every year. Vitacress – producer of peat-free leafy salads and herbs to supply to supermarkets – is among signatories from the food-growing and market garden sector. Evergreen Garden Care produces Miraclegro, one of the UK’s best-selling compost brands and now 100% peat-free. Leading peat-free compost brands have signed the letter, as have big wholesale nurseries like Greenwood Plants in Sussex – producing around six million plants peat-free every year.
And then there are dozens of small and medium–sized enterprises: the dedicated, specialist growers and plant producers who make up the majority of peat-free businesses in this country. Many have been peat-free ever since they started growing, sometimes for decades; or they’ve made the switch years ago because they believed it was the right thing to do, and peat has no place in horticulture. They have been growing peat-free very successfully ever since, quietly catering to an increasingly enlightened gardening public – 95% of whom also supported a ban on peat sales in the government’s consultation back in 2022.
This letter gives a voice to the large and growing segment of horticulture which is fed up of the uncertainty and the endless discussions over whether or not legislation is necessary. They think it is, and they believe peat-free is the future.
The only way to get the peat out of horticulture once and for all is through legislation. Without it, the uncertainty continues, and there will always be someone, somewhere, willing to sacrifice our best carbon stores, flood defences and natural water filtration systems – because that’s what they’ve always done.
The horticultural businesses who have signed the letter believe this has to stop. Now, it’s over to you, Sir Keir: we’re asking you to legislate now to end peat sales in horticulture once and for all.
Click here to read more about our open letter.
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