Tory MPs call for Natural England to lose SSSI powers

A group of Conservative MPs has written to Defra secretary Steve Barclay, urging him to remove Natural England’s powers to designate protected areas, known as sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs).

The joint letter, by Derek Thomas, Conservative MP for St Ives, has been co-signed by 17 other Conservative MPs, including Therese Coffey, Sir Robert Goodwill, Sir Bill Wiggin, Philip Dunne, Trudy Harrison, Greg Smith and Selaine Saxby.

The letter was sent to Mr Barclay on 15 March, two days after Mr Thomas tabled a private members’ bill in the House of Commons, urging the government to take the powers from Natural England and return them to the Defra secretary.

See also: MP bids to strip Natural England of SSSI designation powers

However, it has only come to light on social media platform X this week.

Farmers Weekly exclusively revealed last month that Mr Thomas had tabled the bill which aims to strip the quango of its powers to designate nature reserves.

The call comes after Natural England faced an outcry from the farming industry and wider rural communities over its controversial decision last summer to designate 3,044ha in West Penwith as an SSSI.

Farmers and landowners in the Cornish peninsula complain that they are now subject to Natural England staff dictating how they farm their land.

Some have already decided to sell up and leave the industry, believing the restrictions on their daily farming activities are too onerous.

Mr Thomas’s bill is due to have its second reading in parliament on 26 April. In his letter, the MP acknowledges that it is only likely to progress further if it receives government support.

The letter reads: “The intention of the bill is that Natural England would still identify sites for derogation, and collate the scientific evidence, but your department would interrogate this evidence.

“Your department would be able to scrutinise the evidence – at the moment, Natural England is acting in a quasi-judicial role over the evidence its own staff have provided – and consider wider factors, such as the economic and cultural impact of notification.”

‘Attack on nature’

However, wildlife campaigners have criticised the bill and labelled it as “an attack on nature”.

Environmental campaigner Guy Shrubsole said on X: “Tory ministers and their land-owning friends have long itched to reduce the powers of Natural England and its predecessors.

“Any transfer of those powers to a politician would mean a reduction in nature protections – as fewer nature reserves would get created.”