Opportunities for the Environmental Bill: Letter from the Broadway Initiative
After the UK's exit from the European Union was formally completed in 2020, a large amount of work began to create an environmental framework for the UK. In particular, the Environment Bill was a key part of the legislation working towards that goal, eventually becoming the Environment Act 2021.
The Broadway Initiative wrote this letter to the Government, highlighting five changes that it argued would "unlock market and local power to solve environmental challenges", framing them as key opportunities for the Environment Act:
- Objectives to bind the Bill’s policy and governance processes into a commonly understood direction, giving the economy a consistent long-term view about how to align investment and activities.
- Transparent criteria and processes for setting targets and interim targets, so that everyone is assured that targets are practical and feels the ownership needed to align their activities with them.
- Enduring obligations on successive governments to ensure policies enable targets to be met, so everyone has sufficient confidence to act and make long term investments.
- Provision to enable consistent local environmental planning and prioritisation towards the targets, so that the economy has a shared view of how to plan, invest and collaborate to improve the environment locally.
- Provision, subject to consultation, of a simplified planning mechanism for organisations to factor the environment into their activities, so business and others have a consistent, intuitive and proportionate way to manage the environment.
The IES was a signatory to the letter, drawing on the expertise of our members to support a better governance framework. We also supported a letter from the Broadway Initiative on assurances for key stakeholders to embed in the Bill.
Has governance been delivered for the environment?
The implementation of environmental governance remains a key priority for environmental action across the UK.
In 2026, the IES launched a crucial report on reconnecting environmental targets with credible outcomes, including the legally-binding targets set under the Environment Act.
IES President Julie Hill MBE called for "a Golden Thread of Governance" to see environmental aspirations through to action. In that report, we set out seven recommendations for delivering environmental targets in practice:
- Start with clear, simple targets underpinned by a unifying vision
- Produce actionable and specific delivery plans
- Convene government, partners, and practitioners for delivery
- Provide sufficient resources to ensure delivery
- Use strong accountability frameworks at the programme or project level
- Monitor with a purpose and make better use of data
- Ensure monitoring and evaluation result in feedback to refine plans and delivery
If you want to support the work of the IES, you can become an affiliate, or if you’re a professional in the environmental sector working with science, consider joining the IES.
Header image credit: © Jakob Fischer | adobe Stock
