Wildfires

Lord Roborough Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Roborough (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Caithness for securing this debate on government action on wildfires. I am sure he is also grateful for the attention that this debate has attracted.

It is a pleasure to hear the maiden contributions of my noble friends Lord Jack of Courance and Lord Gove. Both bring exceptional experience, ability and knowledge to this House and will be enormous assets to its work. My noble friend Lord Jack has also helpfully highlighted their ability to work together.

In the brief time available, I turn to the subject of today’s debate. In doing so, I bring the Grand Committee’s attention to my register of interests, particularly ownership of unenclosed land used for grazing in Dartmoor National Park and in the Flow Country of Sutherland, both of which are adjacent to the scenes of devastating wildfires over the past few years.

I agree with my noble friends that our current Natural England management regime is often too restrictive on managed burning and, in many cases, prevents a practice that is beneficial to reducing fuel loads and creating firebreaks, an important cycle that allows vibrant regrowth and food sources for our native wildlife. Peatland restoration or rewetting is not the only answer, being applicable to a minority of uplands, and even there it offers only partial protection against wildfires. In drought, when peatland dries out, it becomes porous and very vulnerable to fire.

Will the Minister take this debate to his ministerial colleagues in Defra to reassess the role of Natural England in restricting controlled burning, with the result that fuel load is building to increasingly dangerous levels in our upland landscape at a time when climate change is sharply increasing the occurrence of wildfires? Natural England has no statutory responsibility for wildfire, yet it is being allowed to take decisions that have a direct impact on wildfire risk. As other noble Lords have highlighted, decisions in this area need to rely on science, not opinion.

Will the Government consider proactive measures, such as organising financial incentives from the beneficiaries of reducing wildfires—insurers and infrastructure and property owners—to fund land managers to create firebreaks and manage fuel load to reduce the extent and intensity of these fires?

In closing, I thank the members of fire and rescue services, gamekeepers, farmers, rangers and wardens who put their own safety at risk to protect infrastructure, property and lives from these devastating wildfires.