State of the Region

IRS Framework Objective 7 - Environmental Quality

To enhance and conserve the environmental quality of the region by increasing the environmental infrastructure.

Key Messages

• River quality in the Midlands has continued to improve - in 2006, 94% of rivers had good or fair chemical quality and 97% had good or fair biological quality. These are still higher than national figures of 93.8% and 95.5% respectively.
• There has been a large increase in the numbers of farms with Environmental Stewardship agreements from 302,696 ha in 2005 to 615,262 in 2006.

Commentary

Water quality in the region is generally good, although some areas of the region experience pollution from agriculture. Intensive agricultural practices are widespread in the region and have damaged water quality in some rivers and aquifers.  Since 1990 there has been an increase in the percentage of rivers of good or fair chemical and biological quality, indicating that aquatic biodiversity in the river environment has improved. Figure 7.1 shows that the biggest increase has been for good or fair chemical quality.

Figure 7.1 – Percentage of rivers of good or fair quality: 1990 - 2006

In terms of broader water issues, the Environment Agency, in documents such as ‘Water Resources for the Future: a Strategy for the East Midlands’ state that throughout much of the region, surface water is already fully utilised during the summer months and that much of the groundwater in the region is subject to unacceptable abstraction regimes. As the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) indicates, on page 40, ‘with pressure from development and climate change the demand for water is likely to increase. This will require management to reduce demand. This in turn may influence the location and timing of future development and will require water efficiency measures and sustainable drainage systems to be installed…’

Across the region the successor to Defra’s Countryside Stewardship agri-environment scheme, the Entry and Higher Level of the Environmental Stewardship scheme has been implemented. The new entry level scheme introduces higher levels of environmental management across whole farms which will show biodiversity benefits over time. If a more significant impact on biodiversity is to be achieved this is likely to require higher level stewardship schemes. Figure 7.2 shows that the area of farms with Environmental Stewardship agreements has more than doubled from 302,696 ha in 2005 to 615, 262 ha in 2006.

Figure 7.2 – Area of farms with Environmental Stewardship agreements (ha): 2005 - 2006

Indicators: IRS Framework Objective 7 – Environmental Quality

Key to the Table

Comments on Table

(a) National figure is for England and Wales

Further sources of evidence

• East Midlands Regional Assembly, 'East Midlands Regional Environment Strategy', 2003
• East Midlands Regional Assembly, 'England's East Midlands Integrated Regional Strategy - Our Sustainable Development Framework', 2005

Links to relevant sections in the Integrated Regional Strategy (IRS)

• Environment 

Links to relevant sections in the East Midlands Integrated Toolkit (EMIT)

• Natural Environment

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