Jeremy Clarkson, James Dyson, the Earl of Derby – they’re up in arms about paying tax on the vast areas of land they own.

Small farmers are worried that changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) will affect them. But who are the big landowners complaining the loudest?... 1/

2/ First up, Jeremy Clarkson, who owns a 1,000-acre farm in the Cotswolds. When he bought it he said: “Land is a better investment than any bank can offer. The government doesn’t get any of my money when I die” -
Now he doesn’t want to pay the #ClarksonTax topgear.com/car-news/jerem…

Revealed: tax loophole exempts 355 landowners from inheritance tax - including huge grouse moor estates & pheasant shoots

I FOI'd HMRC for details & found this tax break is worth *at least* £68m & likely far more

@RachelReevesMP please fix this! 1/

theguardian.com/money/2024/oct… 2/ These 355 landowners benefit from a loophole called the “tax-exempt heritage assets scheme”, under which they can register land and property as heritage assets and make them exempt from inheritance tax.

You can see HMRC's list of landowners here: hmrc.gov.uk/gds/heritage/l…

REVEALED: Just 10% of Britain's National Parks are owned by the nation. 90% of the land in them is privately owned.

This means National Park Authorities are almost powerless to influence the private landowners who too often fail to steward nature 1/

bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
2/ Some National Parks are dominated by very large estates – half of Dartmoor National Park is owned by just 15 large landowners.

Here's my map of public land ownership in National Parks:

google.com/maps/d/u/0/edi…

I’m shocked, shocked to hear that the ‘net zero aspiration’ for farming trumpeted by the National Farmers Union in 2019 is now ‘in doubt’

The NFU’s plan refused to consider significant land use change or dietary shift & favoured bioenergy crops instead 1/ bbc.co.uk/news/articles/… 2/ The NFU’s now blaming the last Govt for not including enough ‘climate-friendly measures’ in ELMS. Look, we can all hate on the Tories. But it was the NFU that lobbied vociferously to water down ELMS - leaving the most ambitious tier, Landscape Recovery, with 5% of the budget

REVEALED: Tory Environment Secretary @SteveBarclay rejected expert advice for review of climate impacts on soil fertility

Officials warned him govt's Agricultural Land Classification system is 'decades old' & will be obsolete by 2030

Story in today's Times; FOI'd docs below 1/ 2/ The Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) system was drawn up after WW2 and grades land according to its ability to produce food - soil fertility, rainfall, climate

It was last updated in *1988* - before climate change had even registered as a political issue in the UK

So @TheGreenParty manifesto is now out - here's my take on their nature policies.

Most significantly, I think, is their pledge for a new Rights of Nature Act - "giving rights to nature itself".

This would be a transformative shift in how we relate to the rest of nature. 1/ 2/ Lawyers like @LawForNature @paulpowlesland have been calling for nature to be granted rights for years, to better defend habitats and species from destruction.

A Rights of Nature Act would transform how we currently relate to nature as mere 'property' or a 'resource'.

The Tory manifesto is now out - here's my take on its nature policies.

First off, the Tories attack Natural England & the Environment Agency: "we will improve their accountability & give them clearer objectives"

Sounds like they want to gut our environmental regulators 1/ 2/ Earlier this year I heard a rumour that the Tories were mulling a manifesto pledge to abolish Natural England.

This clearly falls short of that, but it's part of a vicious war that the Tories have waged on NE for years - simply for trying to do its job.

The Lib Dems have now published their manifesto - here's my take on their nature policies.

First up, I'm delighted that they commit to "Protecting and enhancing our temperate rainforest". Result!

(Full manifesto here: ) Thread 1/ libdems.org.uk/manifesto




2/ A big tranche of the Lib Dems' policies under 'Natural Environment' are about tackling sewage pollution in rivers (all those next to the red highlight below).

Fair play - sewage in rivers is a huge scandal & lots needs doing.

But sewage is only half the problem in rivers...

Buried in Labour's new nature policies is this:

'We will help coordinate nature's recovery with bodies responsible for public land and major landowners'.

This sounds anodyne but could actually be pretty significant. Here's why: 1/ 2/ The government is committed to 30x30 – protecting 30% of England’s land for nature by 2030. But at present it’s waaay off target - @WCLnews say the current total is about 3% of England is properly protected & managed for nature: wcl.org.uk/assets/uploads…

I've been sent the full list of Labour's new nature policies - see screengrabs below. Some of these are profiled in the Guardian's piece here:

Here's my take on them below. Thread 1/ theguardian.com/environment/ar…




2/ Labour's pledges on access are disappointing. See @Right_2Roam's thread on this below & our comment to the Guardian:

https://x.com/Right_2Roam/status/1798979364878791015

REVEALED: 18 Tory MPs have written to Environment Secretary @SteveBarclay urging him to gut @NaturalEngland’s powers to create nature reserves (SSSIs)

This latest #AttackOnNature must not succeed

(Thanks to @jgmarshallwrite for obtaining the letter)

Thread 1/

2/ The letter concerns Derek Thomas MP’s Bill, tabled last month, which would strip Natural England of its power to designate SSSIs.

As a 10-Minute Rule Bill, it stands little chance of passing – unless the Government gives the Bill its support.

https://x.com/guyshrubsole/status/1768346044205592929

Under the radar, Tory MPs & landowning lobbyists are trying to undermine nature protections in England.

Yesterday, Tory MP Derek Thomas tabled a Bill in Parliament to strip Natural England of its power to create nature reserves (SSSIs) & instead give that power to Ministers. 1/ 2/ Here’s the Bill in question – it’s due for its second reading on 26th April: hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2024-0…

So the Countryside Alliance is promoting a report claiming RSPB & United Utilities are creating an 'environmental disaster' in the Lakes - written by the dude who defamed @ChrisGPackham

The fact that UU are ending grouse shooting on their estates has nowt to do with this, obvs🧵





2/ In July 2023, United Utilities announced it would be ending grouse shooting on its moorland estates when the current licenses expire.

This prompted a furious backlash from the Countryside Alliance and pro-grouse shooting groups.

"If England’s peatland – with its vast store of biological carbon and huge potential to soak up more CO2 – isn’t a national asset, then what is?"

Delighted to make the case for a new Public Nature Estate in this great essay collection from @WCL_News 1/

wcl.org.uk/assets/uploads…
2/ When the next UK Govt takes office after the 2024 election, it won’t have long to tackle the nature crisis.

There will be just 5 years to reverse the decline in species & protect 30% of England for nature by 2030.

How can the govt move fast enough on nature recovery?

I’m delighted that the Prime Minister has today announced a new rainforests strategy for England:

This is something I called for in my book & campaigned for with @SeahorseEnv. Thousands of you signed our petition calling for a strategy. Thread: 1/ gov.uk/government/new…






2/ Two years ago there was no prospect of Govt publishing a temperate rainforests strategy.

This rare & wonderful habitat hadn’t even been mentioned by MPs in parliament until we started campaigning in 2021.

This is the power of collective action by the public & NGOs.

Nature is in decline on Dartmoor - like in most of our National Parks.

Recently I spoke to @tomheapmedia about how bad things are.

So the Govt's Dartmoor Review, underway now, could help turn things around - or make things even worse.

Here's how you can input your views 1/ 2/ To make it easy to submit your views to the Dartmoor Review, here's a template letter drafted by @TonyDartmoor & me you can download & customise:


Email your views to Dartmoorreview@defra.gov.uk by 29th September.docs.google.com/document/d/1Kb…

There’s been huge momentum in recent months to protect & restore Britain’s lost rainforests.

From David Attenborough raising the alarm, to politicians voicing support, to landowners taking action, here’s a thread summarising developments: 1/ 2/ Just this past weekend, David Attenborough discussed Britain’s temperate rainforests for the first time, in his #WildIsles series:

"These are temperate rainforests... They have now been reduced to a fraction of their original range across western Britain & Ireland"

Excited to have found a new patch of Cornish temperate rainforest today, on the edge of Bodmin Moor – teeming with oceanic lichens like Sticta sylvatica, & festooned with mosses & ferns.

Short thread: 1/ Bodmin Moor has an oceanic climate conducive to temperate rainforest (the moor is circled in red in the map below, from map.lostrainforestsofbritain.org)

But as the high moor is mostly treeless, I’ve been searching around its edges for rainforest fragments. Today I found one. 2/

Epiphytes - plants that grow on other plants - are the defining species of Britain's temperate rainforests.

So to celebrate them I'm doing a thread on EPIPHYTES IN ART & LITERATURE! #Geek

First off: Ernst Haeckel's Tree Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria), 1899 1/n 2/n EPIPHYTES IN ART & LITERATURE:

Possibly the earliest example of epiphytic plants in British art is this 17th century frieze of Owain Glyndwyr’s Hollow Oak in Dolgellau, Wales. The tree appears to be covered in mosses & polypody ferns. (The devil also dances in its branches)

INVESTMENT ZONES LATEST: 77 sites (& counting) have been proposed by 35 councils to become deregulated Investment Zones - including huge greenfield housing developments & several ports

NEW MAP: google.com/maps/d/edit?mi…
DATABASE: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d… 🧵1/n 2/n The sheer number of Investment Zone sites proposed by some councils is staggering: 21 by East Riding, 20 by Norfolk, 20 by Kent... @SimonClarkeMP has boasted of 'hundreds' of sites being submitted. But what will the cost to the Exchequer be in lost tax revenues? @Jeremy_Hunt

My new book, THE LOST RAINFORESTS OF BRITAIN, is published on 27th October!

You can pre-order here: uk.bookshop.org/books/the-lost…

I'll then be doing a book tour - come hear me enthuse about rainforests, mosses & lichens! Details here: lostrainforestsofbritain.org/2022/10/17/the… & in thread below...🧵 LOST RAINFORESTS BOOK TOUR 🧵:

1st November – Totnes: Albatross events space, 7pm-9pm. Co-hosted by the @EastGateBooks and The Bull Inn, 7pm.

Book tickets here: eastgatebookshop.co.uk/wild-book-talk…