- Conference
- 2024 Water, Environment & Transport Conference
- Date
- 26 February 2024
- Decision
- Carried
1)The best way to protect the environment – retaining the Environment Agency
Conference, the Environment Agency is the foremost environmental regulator in England. We tackle waste crime and pollution incidents, regulate major industry and contaminated land, manage our flood defences and plan for drought and we protect our fisheries and enhance our habitat.
Our 13,000 dedicated staff, work hard to deliver the best for the environment but the introduction of Operator Self-Monitoring for the Water Industry has made that job harder. The recent high profile news items regarding sewage discharges to our rivers and seas and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events due to climate change and the associated flood impacts have brought intense scrutiny on the Environment Agency.
Conference notes the likely shift of the political landscape with the forthcoming general election, but a potential incoming Labour government is not without concern to our members working in the Environment Agency. Previous shadow environment ministers and indeed the Leader of the Labour Party, have spoken openly about a “new super regulator” to crack down on sewage pollution or a new “flood resilience taskforce”.
Conference believes that the skills and competences required to tackle environmental challenges are best served in an efficient and empowered Environment Agency. Appropriate pay and remuneration of employees including many UNISON members is an important part of this formula.
For 12 years or more, the Conservatives heralded themselves as the “greenest government” ever. That claim is “greenwash” of the highest order – but don’t be fooled, the Environment Agency is not the problem. The problem is chronic underfunding and a political culture in hoc to polluting companies who put profit before our precious environment. The situation for our members working for Natural Resources Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is not dissimilar to that of our members in the Environment Agency.
For a potential incoming Labour government to really be the greenest government ever we need a properly funded and integrated Environment Agency which places evidence-based regulation at the heart of its environmental agenda.
We call on the WET SG Executive to:
• Continue to lobby central government to protect the Environment Agency and resist the creation of separate bodies.
• We also call on UNISON to campaign for a fully funded Environment Agency and strengthening of our bargaining machinery with a view to negotiating a fair and improved remuneration that employees deserve.
• Work with Labour Link and other appropriate channels within UNISON to raise this issue with opposition representatives to ensure our concerns about the Labour Party’s proposal to split the Agency is registered.