Dear Prime Minister,

As conservatives, we believe deeply in our duty to protect our natural inheritance for future generations. As a vital carbon store and globally important and rare wildlife habitat, peatlands are critical to fulfilling this duty. Covering 12% of the UK’s land area, we are uniquely positioned to protect and enhance our precious peatlands.

We are proud that successive Conservative governments have committed to protecting and restoring the natural environment, including to restore 280,000 hectares of English peatland by 2050. The government has made a start by committing over £50 million to peatland restoration. Conservative environmentalism is about action, not vague platitudes. 

But despite their environmental importance, 87% of England’s peatlands are degraded, damaged and dried out, emitting tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. It is a tragedy that extraction of peat continues whilst we try to restore this precious habitat that grows at a rate of just 1 mm a year. We must tackle the demand for peat, as well as protecting it on a landscape scale.

With the countdown to the next general election underway, and the local elections just around the corner, there is only limited time to deliver on existing commitments. Among them is the government’s commitment to ban peat and peat-based products from the retail horticulture market. 

We are a nation of gardeners and using compost is an integral part of this pastime. But our gardening has had terrible consequences. Peat extracted for UK horticulture in 2020 alone was anticipated to release up to 880,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (the equivalent to driving an average passenger car 2.2 billion miles) over its lifetime as a growing medium. Information campaigns will only ever go so far in enabling gardeners to go peat-free. 

Gardeners, new and experienced, should be able to buy from a garden centre without fear that their purchase will cause environmental harm elsewhere, particularly as products containing peat are often not clearly labelled, and suitable, similarly-priced alternatives are available. Removing it from the market is a measure only opposed by 5% of consumers. 

If peat-based compost is removed from the market, as the government has committed to doing, peat-free products will become the default option for all gardeners and the demand for extractive peat processes will decline as a result. This is a win for gardeners and a win for the environment. 

CEN MP Theresa Villiers has tabled a 10 Minute Rule Bill which provides an opportunity for the government to deliver on this commitment. As conservative environmentalists, we are writing to ask you to seize this opportunity.

Yours sincerely,