The Environment Agency has published a corporate report alongside Defra’s proposed 25-year environment plan setting out its ambition to protect and improve natural resources to 2020.
Introducing the report, Acting Chairman Emma Howard Boyd said the ambitions would be at the heart of the Agency’s work up until 2020 and that Defra’s proposed 25-year Environment Plan offered a great opportunity to take a long-term view on how to protect and improve natural resources.
“A key element of this will be how we work in partnership across all sectors. This will be increasingly important as we move to a more place-based approach to the environment,” she added.
The document also explains the metrics the Agency will be measured against so it knows when it is succeeding – or failing - in its ambitions.
Metrics the EnvironmentAgency is aiming to achieve in 2016-17 include:
717 kilometres of rivers, lakes and coastal waters are healthier.
400 hectares of new habitats are created.
95% of planning applications are responded to within 21 days.
A further 45,000 homes are better protected from flooding.
97% of our high risk flood and coastal risk management assets are at or above the target condition.
6,500 staff are trained and ready to respond to incidents.
No increase in serious pollution incidents from the previous 2-year rolling average.
We reduce the number of high risk illegal waste sites by 3% each quarter.
We reduce the regulatory burden to save businesses money.
Partnership funding secured: equivalent to 15% of our total FCRM Grant in Aid over 6 years
The Agency said it would use and share the right data to deliver outcomes, with a total of 1,500 datasets released by 30 June 2016.
Click here to read Our ambition to 2020 in full
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