Photo: Heidi Fin on Unsplash
By Sally Nex, Peat-free Partnership
There’s a back to school feeling in the air this week: MPs are returning to Westminster, MSPs are taking their seats again in Holyrood and the Assembly is back in Stormont, with Welsh Senedd members starting in just over two weeks’ time.
So it’s time to roll up the sleeves and get stuck in again!
You’ll remember we got so very close to introducing legislation in the last Parliament. The Horticultural Peat Prohibition Bill, brought forward by former Environment Secretary and now former Conservative MP Theresa Villiers, was just a week away from its second reading when the General Election was called.
But disappointing though it was to have that attempt fail, it does mean we’re a long way further forward now than we were at the start of the year, when the Partnership started work.
We now have a fully developed framework for legislation – the rough draft, so to speak. It won’t be the final product (that’s up to the government) but it does mean the first, and perhaps the hardest task is now complete: we have a workable blueprint that listens to the horticultural industry’s concerns and allows for a fair, phased, supported transition for professional growers, while also making absolutely sure peat is removed from our gardens once and for all.
So all we have to do now is convince the new Labour administration that this is worth shoehorning into an already packed programme of legislation. There are promising signs that this government will take its responsibilities towards the environment seriously: the new Environment Secretary, Steve Reed, laid out his five priorities almost the moment he took office, and ending peat sales ticks every single box.
The new cohort of backbench Labour MPs looks pretty green, too. One worked for the World Wildlife Fund before she took office; another led UK 100 – a network of local council leaders committed to climate action. A third was energy and climate change lead for the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Add to that 72 Liberal Democrat MPs – a record result for them and one which puts them into the position of third-largest party in the Commons. The Lib Dems stood out as the only party during the general election who specifically named a ban on peat sales in horticulture as a manifesto pledge. By happy coincidence they’ll also hold the chair position in the new Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, whose members will be announced in a couple of weeks’ time.
And four Green MPs too – another record for that party. All in all, it’s looking like this could be the most environmentally-aware Westminster parliament for years.
We will be making the most of it. We’re already busy talking and listening to all four UK governments to work out the best way forward from here, and we’ll be making sure keeping peat in the ground and out of our gardens stays firmly on the agenda in the coming months.
Look out for upcoming campaigns, starting next week with our open letter campaign, and get involved – just by contacting your local MP, MSP, MS or AM, starting a conversation on social media or taking part in actions like the Hidden Peat initiative from partner organisation The Wildlife Trusts you can help us keep the pressure on. Let us know how you get on!
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