Today The Wildlife Trusts publish a list of eight Bills to fast-track nature recovery, improve national security and bolster people’s health. They are an invitation to the UK Government to do better. The proposed legislation demonstrates the level of ambition UK Ministers should aim for if delivery is to match warm words about wildlife, and to meet the rising public demand for nature action.

The last King’s Speech proposed 40 different Bills to overcome the challenges facing the UK. Not one of those Bills sought to tackle the severe and ongoing loss of nature in the UK, despite the fact that such declines threaten our food, water, health and homes. Since that speech in 2024, wild species and the habitats on which they depend have continued to decline at an alarming rate. The prospect of catastrophic ecosystem collapse has inched closer.

In January this year, the UK Government published a summary of the National Security Assessment on global biodiversity loss, showing nature decline to be a growing risk to the UK’s economy and overall security.