Speech

Steve Reed National Trust 130th Anniversary Dinner speech

Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed addressed the National Trust's 130th Anniversary Dinner on Tuesday 10 June

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and The Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP
• Published: 11 June 2025

• Location: Westminster, London, United Kingdom
• Delivered on: 10 June 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)

Thank you for inviting me to your celebration today.

I바카라 사이트™d like to thank Hilary, Rene, National Trust staff and the thousands of volunteers around the country for the work you do. And wish the National Trust a happy 130th birthday.

I바카라 사이트™m one of the 5 million people who have a National Trust membership card like this one.  We all have a special place we love to visit. For me, it바카라 사이트™s Sissinghurst Castle in Kent.

I love the beautiful gardens designed by the writer and poet Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson.

Vita opened her gardens for everyone to enjoy in the late 1930s, with visitors putting a shilling into an old tobacco tin under the entrance archway.

This special place was donated to the National Trust in the 1960s, and it continues to welcome thousands of visitors every year. Admittedly seeing some inflation since Vita바카라 사이트™s time!

As we have heard from Hilary, the National Trust is not just about preserving the past. It is carrying out vital work to prepare for the future.

The Frogmead Restoration project on the Sissinghurst Estate is restoring biodiversity 바카라 사이트“ increasing flora and fauna, attracting wetland birds, bolstering the dragonfly population and allowing frogs to return to the area.

It is also reducing flood risk in the Medway catchment, protecting homes and livelihoods.

We need more projects like this so we can adapt to our changing world.

We make many competing demands on the finite amount of land that바카라 사이트™s available to us.

Nature underpins everything. Our economy, our communities and our livelihoods. 

But we have become one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

Restoring nature is a key pillar of the 바카라 사이트바카라 사이트™s Plan for Change.  That바카라 사이트™s essential because we human beings are not merely observers of nature, we are an intrinsic part of it. When we destroy nature, we are ultimately destroying ourselves, and we can바카라 사이트™t let that happen.  

The National Trust바카라 사이트™s new strategy to 2035 that will be pivotal in helping us restore nature. But the 바카라 사이트 must play our part too. 

I바카라 사이트™ve just arrived back this afternoon from the UN Oceans Conference in Nice.  I was proud to announce a consultation on banning bottom-trawling in our Marine Protected Areas. We can바카라 사이트™t go on wiping out precious marine habitats just because they바카라 사이트™re out of sight beneath the sea. 

The oceans cover two thirds of our planet. If we are serious about protecting nature, we must protect our seas and the life and ecosystems they sustain.  

This afternoon, my colleague Emma Hardy has told the same conference that the UK will introduce legislation this year to ratify the Global Oceans Treaty so we are part of the first group of nations coming together to protect biodiversity in the seas beyond national jurisdictions. 

And yesterday, my colleague Matthew Pennycook announced that the 바카라 사이트 will update national planning policy to ensure swift bricks are incorporated into new buildings. They make a massive impact on expanding bird populations.  We will make sure that now happens in new developments right across the country. 

Those three initiatives have been announced in the past 24 hours alone. But we know there바카라 사이트™s much more to do.

We are committed to increasing access to nature for everyone, whether that바카라 사이트™s hiking in our beautiful countryside, swimming in clean rivers, lakes and seas, or taking a lunchtime stroll around the park.  

We will create nine new National River Walks, plant three new National Forests and support communities to create new parks and green spaces in their neighbourhoods.

We바카라 사이트™ve already announced the first new national forest between the Cotswolds and the Mendips which will see 20 million trees planted in the coming years.

It바카라 사이트™s a national scandal that our rivers, lakes and seas are choked by record levels of pollution. We바카라 사이트™re cleaning them up with new laws to ban bonuses for water bosses who oversee catastrophic pollution incidents, and bringing in over £100bn of private sector funding to upgrade the broken pipes that are the primary cause of sewage leaks.   

We바카라 사이트™ve saved more than 40 thousand miles of footpaths and historic rights of way so they can continue to be used by the public.

And we are making protected landscapes, national trails, forests and countryside more accessible with our £33 million 바카라 사이트˜Access for All바카라 사이트™ programme.

I look forward to working with the National Trust to develop this work and open up more of our beautiful countryside for everyone to enjoy.

I know that we need to speed up nature바카라 사이트™s recovery.

I asked Dan Corry to lead a review into environmental regulation. He pointed out that a very large proportion of applications come from organisations like the National Trust, the RSPB and others who have to wait months despite having a proven track record in protecting nature. 

So we are going to speed things up by giving them the power to approve their own applications.

I바카라 사이트™m delighted that the National Trust is a frontrunner for this.

The National Trust and Natural England, along with the Forestry Commission, are working together in the Peak District to pilot one of two 바카라 사이트˜Nature Enterprise Zones바카라 사이트™ 바카라 사이트“ the other is in North Devon.

These zones will pilot this new approach, reviewing and testing how we can streamline and simplify the system so the National Trust can do more on protected sites, restoring species, and improving land management. 

The Peak District Nature Enterprise Zone will span over ten thousand hectares of National Trust land. It will include trees, peat, grassland, farming, and it will open up nature to more people.   

I바카라 사이트™m excited about this pilot, and we바카라 사이트™ll learn from it how we can expand the approach more widely.   

Collaboration like this is vital to protecting nature.  We are all links in a chain, and we have to pull together to get the outcomes we want to see. 

I want to thank the National Trust for your continued engagement with Defra.

I know the Minister for Nature, Mary Creagh, was thrilled to be part of the historic moment at Purbeck when beavers were reintroduced into the wild in England.

We바카라 사이트™ve fully banned bee-killing pesticides as a step towards helping pollinators recover, which will also support the bird populations that depend on them as a food source.

We are working with farmers to move towards regenerative farming that focuses on improving the soil so it needs less artificial fertiliser, fewer pesticides, and has more organic matter that helps retain water.  

Approaches like this aren바카라 사이트™t just good for nature and good for water quality, they바카라 사이트™re good for farm businesses because they reduce input costs but increase food production and food quality sustainably. 

Many people at this gathering are helping shape the first-ever Land Use Framework for England. A rather boring title for an incredibly exciting initiative that will provide the most sophisticated land-use data and toolkit ever published in our country바카라 사이트™s history. 

It will allow us to expand nature across whole landscapes while ensuring land is used more rationally for the many other demands we make of it for food, energy and housing. 

The partnership between us is critical as we work together to restore nature for future generations.  We바카라 사이트™ll have to overcome tensions and disagreements from time to time. But this is a government that aspires to be the best government for nature this country바카라 사이트™s ever had. And you are our partners in getting there.   

The prize before us is huge.

Our rivers, lakes and seas cleaned up of pollution.

Birds, pollinators and wildlife back in our gardens.

Nature in full recovery and open to everyone to enjoy.

Nature underpins everything that we are as a society.  It is our duty to protect it, cherish it, and restore it. 

That바카라 사이트™s the best 130th anniversary present we could wish for!

Published 11 June 2025