‘We need clarity on ELMS’
NEW Defra Secretary of State Thérèse Coffey was welcomed to the role with cautious optimism by countryside organisations last week. Dr Coffey, the third Defra secretary of the year, was previously a junior minister in the department, serving as the Minister of State for the Environment and Rural Opportunity from 2016 to 2019.
‘I am delighted to return to Defra, this time as Secretary of State,’ she said in a statement. ‘As the Prime Minister set out, protecting our environment is at the heart of our manifesto. I will work closely with rural communities, farmers, industries and the champions of our environment to strengthen our natural environment and support our thriving food and farming sector.’
The reconciliatory tone of her statement was greeted warmly by organisations across the country, some of which felt under open attack under the previous short-lived Government of Liz Truss and her Defra Secretary Ranil Jayawardena. Organisations such as the RSPB, National Trust and The Wildlife Trusts reacted poorly to plans such as proposed subsidy reform, ‘investment zones’, solar-farm bans and fracking, declaring them ‘an attack on Nature’ and warning the then Government that they were willing to organise protests (). It would seem that the Prime Minister and Dr Coffey are keen to distance themselves from those
