Emergency Motion to conference

Jenny has put an emergency motion to conference in response to reports that the government will try again to scrap the anti-pollution rules for areas like the Norfolk Broads and Lake District. Please like it on the Green Party members emergency motion page, so it can be debated:

Your two Green Party peers led a successful rebellion against the government’s attempts to push through the scrapping of the Nutrient Neutrality rules for new housing, as part of the Levelling Up Bill. Jenny contacted all peers to say they should block the government amendments rather than support their own amendments to improve the legislation. She contacted the NGOs to explain why this was the better approach and persuaded them to go for outright opposition. Above all, Jenny got the Labour Party to change tack as their shadow spokesperson, Lisa Nandy, originally said Labour might keep the changes, if they were in government. Fortunately, the new Labour shadow Levelling Up spokesperson was Angela Rayner, who listened to the lobbying of people who are influenced by what Jenny put forward.  

The emergency motion reads:

“The Green Party notes the recent media reports of the government’s intention to scrap the rules on Nutrient Neutrality as part of the King’s Speech. The Green Party peers and MP have previously opposed this measure as a clear breach of government promises not to use Brexit to weaken environmental rules. These proposals would result in greater profits for developers, while the taxpayer will pay for the cost of cleaning up the pollution. This legislation was defeated in a Lords rebellion led by the Green Party peers. Numerous environmental groups have actively opposed dropping these safeguards. The public are already fed up with high levels of sewage and agricultural runoff in our waterways and do not want yet more pollution.  We urge all green councillors in the areas protected by the existing rules on sensitive waterways to support motions opposing the removal of these safeguards and for our green representatives in parliament to continue their opposition.”