The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee is calling for the Government’s Natural Capital Committee set up to check how far the Government bases its policies on the cost and benefits the UK derives from its natural environment to be put on a permanent statutory footing.

The recommendation is made in the EAC’s new report  Wellbeing examining two ongoing Government-sponsored initiatives intended to increase the measurement and use of sustainable development metrics - the project by the Office for National Statistics for ‘Measuring National Well-being” and the work of the Natural Capital Committee (NCC).

The EAC says that natural capital needs to be ‘hard wired’ into policy-making, but it is currently inadequately measured – its formal recommendation states:

“ The Government should give clear encouragement to the work that the NCC is taking forward. To maintain the momentum of the NCC’s work past its current remit ending in 2015, the Government should put the NCC on a long-term statutory footing and respond formally to the NCC’s annual reports. The Government should also accept without delay the NCC’s key recommendation for a 25 year plan for improving England’s natural capital, and make it responsible for monitoring the implementation of that plan.”

Established in May 2012 with a three-year remit that ends just before the General Election, the NCC has produced two progress reports to date, highlighting gaps in the available data and calling for a 25-year plan to plug the gaps and start using the information in Government decisions. However, the Government has yet to respond in detail to the NCC reports The State of Natural Capital: Towards a framework for measurement and valuation’ in 2013 and The State of Natural Capital: Restoring our Natural Assets in 2014.

Introducing the second report, NCC chairman Dieter Helm said:

“Over the coming decades, there will be a major programme to develop the UK's infrastructure. The National Infrastructure Plan 2013 sets out ambitious plans - for new railways, roads, airport expansions, energy systems, water resources, sewerage investments, flood defences and a major increase in house building - to modernise the economy and accommodate a sharp rise in population. In taking forward this major investment, it is important not to lose sight of natural infrastructure and the integral part that natural capital plays in delivering sustainable economic growth.”

“Integrating the environment into the economy is hampered by the almost complete absence of proper accounting for natural assets. What is not measured is usually ignored. National and corporate accounts are essential building blocks. The torch needs to be shone on what is going on, in order to work out how to seize the numerous opportunities.”

In the run-up to the General Election next year the Committee is now planning to devote much of its time to “providing more flesh on the bones” of the 25 Year Plan with a particular focus on:

• finding the projects which deliver the maximum benefits;
• identifying ways in which the various funding and spending streams could be better managed to deliver more environmental benefits for any given cost.

Commenting on the MPs recommendation to put the NCC on a permanent basis, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, Joan Walley MP, said:

“Improving the quality of life in the UK for us and for future generations will depend on how well we measure social well-being and the free environmental services we all rely on to live – like pollination, fresh water and clean air. It is important that the momentum behind the Natural Capital Committee’s (NCC) work is maintained. With its current remit finishing at the time of the General Election, there is a risk that the required longer term changes it identifies will be overlooked."

"The Government should signal its continuing commitment to the NCC and its work by putting it on a long-term statutory footing and by responding formally to the NCC’s annual reports, starting immediately with its latest March 2014 report. I would like to see that Government response accepting the NCC’s key recommendation for a 25 year plan for improving natural capital.”

Responding to the Environmental Audit Committee’s call,  Karen Ellis, WWF-UK’s Chief Economics Adviser, said:

“The Committee is absolutely right that we need the Natural Capital Committee to be a permanent feature of the landscape, and one that politicians listen and respond to. Failure to value our natural resources, and make them central to Government decision-making, is manifestly bad for the environment – but its bad economics and bad politics too."

“We saw earlier this year the harrowing impacts of flooding on communities across southern England – better management of our uplands and river valleys could have helped reduce the impacts of those floods on people’s lives and livelihoods, while helping nature too.”