Tom Willerton-Gartside, Head of Press at Looking for Growth, has written an opinion piece for the Daily Express explaining why he opposes Natural England, the government quango created in 2006 to manage the natural environment for the benefit of present and future generations.
He argues that Natural England is an unelected government quango with a de facto veto over industries, energy prices, jobs, and homes. Across much of Britain, projects effectively need the quango's permission to become reality. If they object, proposals can be dragged through the courts, delayed for years, and loaded with costly new conditions – or forced into cancellation.
Examples of objections
Willerton-Gartside lists examples of what Natural England has said no to, including bat tunnels, cancelled kite festivals, thousands of blocked homes due to snails, and even the construction of their own new office in Cornwall.
The most egregious example, he says, is the £700 million fish disco at Hinkley Point C. This saga has dragged out the construction of Britain's first new nuclear power station this century for around a decade – and it is still not known whether it will be enough to get Natural England's approval. Earlier this year, reports suggested the 2030 switch-on date will be delayed again because the quango has now decided the fish disco is not, on its own, sufficient.
Tony Juniper's record
Willerton-Gartside points to the record of Natural England's chair, Tony Juniper. In 2005, as Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, Juniper wrote “Say no to Labour's nuclear nightmare”, arguing that new nuclear power stations in Britain were not “justified” and “would greatly increase the risk of nuclear proliferation”. At the 2010 election, Juniper stood as the Green Party's parliamentary candidate for Cambridge, on a platform to “phase out nuclear power and resolutely oppose any new nuclear power stations”.
In 2013, he claimed that nuclear “simply does not work in the context of modern energy economics”. Three years later, he claimed that “nuclear is a dead end”, promoted articles opposing Hinkley Point C on his Twitter account, and signed and promoted a petition opposing it.
In 2019, the Conservative Government made Juniper the Chair of Natural England. He was reappointed in 2021, again by the Tories, and in 2025 by the Labour Government. In that time, Natural England has delayed development and driven up costs. Hinkley Point C, the very project Juniper publicly opposed before his appointment, faces delay after delay.
Energy security and costs
Willerton-Gartside argues that Natural England is now a threat to Britain's energy security. He says they are blocking the cheap, secure, reliable nuclear energy that – according to a report published by Ed Hezlet at Onward last week – could help save consumers over £320 billion by 2050, the equivalent of around £540 per household, per year. Not only that, he says, they have made us more reliant on sources of energy that are less reliable and – in the case of oil and gas – worse for the environment.
He writes that he wants to get bills down to save industries from collapse and to make life more affordable for the British people, and wants the green and pleasant land to remain the envy of the world. These ambitions are not contradictory, and the Government should not act like it.
Abolishing Natural England, and ending the stranglehold of the green lobby on British politics, would not transform the countryside into ugly, characterless, concrete jungles. But it would allow builders, companies, and industries to just do stuff once more, rather than going through decades of delays, processes, and additional costs.
If the Government wants to get bills down sustainably and improve the lives of millions, they cannot let Natural England stop Britain from building. Cutting VAT on energy bills, as this week's price cap rise has shown, is not enough – now or in the long term. Willerton-Gartside says Andy Burnham must therefore stop consulting or reviewing policies, and just get on with it. He should scrap Natural England immediately, and return the power to elected politicians.
