Peat-free legislation will not be implemented in a way that damages growers’ businesses, the Defra minister responsible for seeing the legislation through has promised.
“We do need to continue to reduce the use of peat and I know that since 2011 you have been successful in doing that voluntarily,” Trudy Harrison, minister for natural environment and land use, told industry representatives at the launch of the Environmental Horticulture lobbying group at Westminster in June.
“I and my officials will continue to work with your sector to ensure there is a sustainable supply of viable peat-free alternatives but we won’t do that in a way that scuppers your sector. I won’t oversee anything that does that.”
The Scottish government is planning its own ban on peat use following a consultation that closed in May. Its proposal is to ban peat from amateur gardening products first, as in England, and then from professional growing media. “This might be achieved by applying a general ban on the sale of peat (for all purposes) with exemptions, some time-limited to allow for transition,” said the Scottish directorate for environment and forestry.
It says it wants to understand how ending peat sales will affect industry, ‘particularly professional horticulture’ so that it can consider measures that might ease the transition. While it takes account of Defra’s impact analysis it will also consider specific effects on Scottish businesses ‘to support them as best we can’.
Scotland has an estimated two million ha of peatland of which only around 1,000ha is used to produce around 300,000cu m of horticultural peat.
The Welsh government is planning to end sales of peat to amateur gardeners by the end of 2024, and for professional users ‘as quickly as practically possible’ after that.
In June the HTA warned that Defra’s decision to bring forward the deadline for ending peat use in England to 2026 risked a shortage of 100 million plants and trees the following year, with ‘devastating impacts’ both on growers’ businesses and on the government’s environment plan. It’s urging ministers to reconsider the timing to allow for further research and adaptation and says growers were already on target to meet the original 2030 voluntary deadline. It supported a number of MPs to raise questions in Parliament at the end of May about the impact of the peat ban.