The Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Defra and MHCLG Secretaries of State and the Minister for Nature received a letter from the Campaign for National Parks on 7 October 2025 titled ‘Do not weaken the laws protecting National Parks and National Landscapes’. We will respond in due course.

The Government is working with a range of partners to consider the impact of the Protected Landscapes Duty. The duty is intended to facilitate better outcomes for England’s Protected Landscapes, which are in line with their statutory purposes.

The Government has published guidance on the Protected Landscapes duty to ensure public bodies operating in these areas, including water companies, deliver better environmental outcomes working together with Protected Landscape organisations.

The Government will publish a response to our public consultation shortly, ensuring that the proposals fit with the upcoming Environmental Improvement Plan. Our Farming in Protected Landscapes programme is a key part of implementing our response to the Landscapes Review and provides funding to deliver projects on the key themes raised by the review including climate, nature, people, and place.

We are helping to create a new partnership to enable National Parks, AONBs and National Trails to achieve closer collaboration on national priorities. Natural England is progressing the landmark designation programme which includes the consideration of two new AONBs and two extensions. This is expected to be completed by 2025 and will play a key role in meeting the government’s commitment to protect and improve 30% of UK land by 2030. Further measures and additional details will be set out in the consultation response.

The Landscapes Review included proposals to increase engagement with all parts of society, particularly younger and more diverse audiences. Programmes such as Generation Green demonstrate that national-scale partnerships and coordinated collaboration can augment what our lead partners are already doing so well. We are also aiming to establish a new national landscapes partnership that can work with our lead partners to enhance and expand community engagement through national strategic partnerships and collaborative programmes

We are also actively developing opportunities to work across government to strengthen the role that protected landscapes can play in supporting the country’s health, wellbeing, and education.

A number of National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are undertaking initiatives to provide opportunities to connect young people with nature.

The Government published its response to the Landscapes Review on 15 January. We have received over 15,000 responses to our consultation and are currently analysing the consultation responses.

Since the review was published, we have launched the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme to provide funding for farmers and land managers to work in partnership with National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Beauty (AONB) teams to deliver projects on climate, nature, people and place. In the first year of the programme, more than 1,000 projects have been supported.

The Government is supporting more diverse and inclusive engagement in our protected landscapes, through programmes such as Generation Green programme, which has been funded through our Green Recovery Challenge Fund. The Government is also running green social prescribing pilots at several sites in or near protected landscapes, which will test how connecting people with nature can improve mental wellbeing.

Natural England is implementing an ambitious new landscape designation programme, which includes considering the creation of two new AONBs in the Yorkshire Wolds and Cheshire Sandstone Ridge, and extensions to the Surrey Hills and Chilterns AONBs. The new programme is also exploring new approaches to improve landscapes for people and nature, particularly in and around towns and cities.

The independent Landscapes Review, led by Julian Glover, set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).

We welcome this ambition, as the government is committed to ensuring our protected landscapes flourish as havens for nature and are places that everyone can visit and enjoy.

The Landscapes Review included recommendations for long-term structural changes, such as creating a new National Landscape Service and changing National Park and AONB statutory purposes, that would require legislation were they to be taken forward.

We are taking time to carefully consider the recommendations and working with partner organisations to inform and develop our response to the review, which we will publish in due course.

In the meantime, we are working to implement the ambitions of the Review on the ground now. For example, we are leading a £5.77m cross-governmental project to test nature-based social prescribing in seven test and learn sites, run national experimental work to understand its scalability, and deliver a robust project evaluation. This will help improve mental health and wellbeing by connecting more people to nature, including in protected landscapes.

The £80m Green Recovery Challenge Fund, which launched in September 2020, will kickstart a programme of nature-based projects to restore nature, tackle climate change and connect people with the natural environment. Some of these projects will help deliver on the Landscape Review's recommendations, such as the proposal to give every child a night under the stars in a national landscape.

The independent Landscapes Review, led by Julian Glover, set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).

We welcome this ambition, as the government is committed to ensuring our protected landscapes flourish as havens for nature and are places that everyone can visit and enjoy.

The Landscapes Review included recommendations for long-term structural changes, such as creating a new National Landscape Service and changing National Park and AONB statutory purposes, that would require legislation were they to be taken forward.

We are taking time to carefully consider the recommendations and working with partner organisations to inform and develop our response to the review, which we will publish in due course.

In the meantime, we are working to implement the ambitions of the Review on the ground now. For example, we are leading a £5.77m cross-governmental project to test nature-based social prescribing in seven test and learn sites, run national experimental work to understand its scalability, and deliver a robust project evaluation. This will help improve mental health and wellbeing by connecting more people to nature, including in protected landscapes.

The £80m Green Recovery Challenge Fund, which launched in September 2020, will kickstart a programme of nature-based projects to restore nature, tackle climate change and connect people with the natural environment. Some of these projects will help deliver on the Landscape Review's recommendations, such as the proposal to give every child a night under the stars in a national landscape.

The independent Landscapes Review, led by Julian Glover, set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

We welcome this ambition, as the Government is committed to ensuring our protected landscapes flourish as havens for nature and are places that everyone can visit and enjoy.

The Landscapes Review included recommendations for long-term structural changes, such as creating a new National Landscape Service and changing National Park and AONB statutory purposes, that would require legislation were they to be taken forward.

We are taking time to consider carefully the recommendations and working with partner organisations to inform and develop our response to the review, which we will publish in due course.

The Government is committed to ensuring our Protected Landscapes flourish as havens for nature and are places that everyone can visit and enjoy.

The Glover Landscapes Review set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We welcome this ambition and recognise the importance of actively engaging with civil society organisations and the Landscape organisations to inform and develop our response

We have therefore established the ‘National Landscapes Stakeholder Reference Group’ and have been working closely with them to help shape our response to the Review, with a focus on those recommendations requiring collective action and new ways of working nationally.

The Government will come forward with firm proposals for implementing the Glover Landscapes Review in due course.

The Government is committed to ensuring our Protected Landscapes flourish as havens for nature and are places that everyone can visit and enjoy.

The Glover Landscapes Review set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We welcome this ambition and consider it important that we actively engage with stakeholders to inform and develop our response.

We are working on our response to the Review, with a focus on those recommendations requiring collective action and new ways of working nationally. The Government will come forward with firm proposals for implementing the Glover Landscapes Review in due course.

Prior to the launch of the review of designated landscapes the Secretary of State met Julian Glover to discuss the objectives for the review which are reflected in the terms of reference.

I am grateful for my right hon. Friend’s comments. He is absolutely right; Julian Glover is an outstanding individual who I know will conduct a superb piece of work, which we expect to publish in the latter

half of next year. My right hon. Friend is also right to say that the reason our national parks are so successful is that they are not museums; they are active, working places, and individuals make sure that they are places of beauty that draw so many visitors, but are also places of food production and economic activity.

I very much welcome the appointment of Julian Glover to do a review of national parks. Will my right hon. Friend say when he expects that review to report? Does he agree that it is very important that national parks are not held back to become museums, but become thriving places for people to invest and develop houses in the right places?