BORIS Johnson has been accused of selling out green commitments in favour of “chasing short term headlines” after it was revealed the budget for rewilding will be slashed.
Despite previous pledges to spend record amounts on transforming farmland into eco-friendly forests, peatlands and meadows, it appears funds set aside for this have been mostly scrapped.
The Prime Minister had promised a budget of £800 million per year for rewilding but this has now been cut to just £50m over three years in an attempt to boost UK food production, The Sunday Times reports.
The move is seen as a win for farmers who opposed the plans.
The Government’s new Good Food Strategy, published on Monday, did not make specific references to the rewilding budget though the document noted “environmental land management offers (ELM) will remain responsive to farmer demand”.
ELM schemes include the project which oversees rewilding in England. Farming is a devolved matter and is controlled by the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Greens have accused the Tories of “demonstrating how little they understand about the importance of our environment” over the revelations.
Mark Ruskell, the party’s environment spokesman said: “The UK is facing interlinked climate and nature emergencies. The costs of inaction to our planet, to our economy, and to communities here and around the world are incalculable.
"We've seen before how the Tories chasing short term headlines leads to huge medium to long term costs.
“The last time the Tories decided to make headlines by ‘cutting the green crap’ they added £2.5bn to people's energy bills.
“So it's shocking that they've now chosen to cut almost the entire rewilding budget before it comes into existence, demonstrating how little they understand about the importance of our environment, and how little they've learned from past mistakes.
"With Greens in government Scotland will continue investing record amounts in nature restoration."
The Scottish Government was approached for comment.
