Natural England: campaigning for you

Fair pay

Prospect is campaigning for fair pay for Natural England staff.  Natural England is tasked with the government’s huge challenge of reversing biodiversity decline in England and realising a new future of nature recovery. But its staff of highly skilled professionals and specialists, who are able to find the solutions and work with partners to achieve this, are the lowest paid in the whole of Defra.

Natural England is Defra’s poor cousin, with the lowest payscale minima and the longest payscales by far, compared with its sister organisations.  With pay progression stalled for the last ten years, two thirds of NE staff now find themselves stuck at the bottom of their pay ranges and paid thousands of pounds less a year compared to their counterpart colleagues in the department. There is also worrying evidence of equal pay disparity in Natural England where women are being paid less than men for carrying out similar work.

Stand Up for Natural England

Prospect has also run a recent high-profile campaign for fair funding and resourcing of Natural England, which has been subject to drastic budget cuts since 2010, suffering the largest proportional cuts in Defra. Prospect took the campaign to Parliament to highlight the plight of Natural England and its crucial work for the natural environment with MPs across the political parties. Our work was referenced in a number of select committees including for the Environment Bill this year.

Thankfully government has listened and responded, providing Natural England with an uplift in core funding, secured for the next three years.  It is now imperative similar action is taken to support fair and deserved pay for the highly skilled workers of Natural England, to secure its expertise and readiness for the challenges to come.