Right to Roam – What the Party Manifesto’s Are Saying

How do the party manifestos compare on access?

Dear Roamers, This week has seen a blizzard of policy pledges as the main political parties have published their manifestos. Here’s the Right to Roam campaign’s take on how the manifestos of the 4 main parties in England compare on the issue of access to nature.*  *Note: the Right to Roam campaign is focused on changing access law in England, so we’ve not looked here at the manifestos of Plaid Cymru, the SNP, or parties standing in Northern Ireland. ReformUK’s manifesto is not due out until late next week, so we’ve not included it here; if it has anything to say on access to nature, we’ll tweet about it.  Conservatives The Conservative party’s manifesto states: “We will not impose a universal Right to Roam.” Well, at least they’re being clear about it! They restate the Conservative government’s January 2023 “commitment” for “everyone to have access to nature within 15 minutes’ walk of where they live.” However, when we FOI’d the government for how they plan to achieve this goal, we discovered there was no plan.The Tory manifesto now pledges to increase access by creating a new National Park, completing the England Coast Path (still incomplete since it was first announced 15 years ago), and supporting programmes to get disadvantaged children into nature.However, our view is that these measures are totally incommensurate with reaching the Tories’ own 15 minutes goal. The best and cheapest way of meeting it would be to… support a universal right to roam.  Labour Labour’s manifesto (and its set of nature policies trailed prior to manifesto publication) pledges that “as part of our plans to improve responsible access to nature”, it will “create nine new National River Walks, one in each region of England”, and “establish three new National Forests in England”.  This is disappointing, as these policies on their own will do very little to improve access to nature. With no clear right of access to 97% of our rivers, any effort to put in footpaths may be stymied by landowner objections – and fail to extend statutory rights to the water itself. 85% of English woodland is off limits to the public, so a few new national forests will also make little difference.  In 2023, Labour had signalled support for introducing a Scottish-style right to roam in England, but later U-turned. We hope the party will reconsider, seeing as a right of responsible access is supported by 69% of the public, and is the most cost-effective way of increasing access for all. We note Labour’s manifesto does say the stated policies are only “part of our plans”, hopefully hinting at greater ambitions in future.  Lib Dems The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto pledges to “ensure everyone has access to a healthy natural environment”, through “significantly increasing the amount of accessible green space” and “exploring a ‘right to roam’ for waterways”. We’re pleased to see the inclusion of a right to roam for waterways. But we’d like to have seen more on extending the right to roam to other landscapes – and note that the Lib Dem policy agreed at Autumn 2023 conference was for “expanding everyone’s right to access and roam in areas like green belt, rivers and woodlands”.   Greens The Green Party have pledged to introduce a “new English Right to Roam Act”, which would “extend people’s access to green space and waterways close to where they live”. In the more detailed version of their manifesto, they confirm that this new Act “would be based on the model in Scotland and include sensible exceptions, such as fields where crops are growing”, and be “accompanied by a renewed and strengthened Countryside Code which clearly sets out rights and responsibilities when accessing nature.” This is very welcome and reflects what the Right to Roam campaign has been calling for. You can read our draft Right to Roam Bill here.  So who should I vote for?  We’re not telling people how to vote. You may find our analysis above helpful to consider, but we recognise that people will be voting based on lots of factors – and that many people will be voting tactically based on where they live.  But we do need your help – please can you contact your election candidates, regardless of party, and urge them to support the Right to Roam campaign’s asks? It’s easy to do this – just find your candidates’ contact details here, and send them the template email and briefing we’ve prepared for you here.  No matter who forms a government, we need them to support a right of responsible access – and whoever is in opposition, we need them to push ministers to be bolder. Once the dust has settled after the election, the Right to Roam campaign will be fighting for our right to access nature, regardless of who’s in power. Thanks again for your support – let’s do this! Best wishes,Guy & the Right to Roam team To follow us on social media: Twitter: @Right_2Roam Instagram: right.2roamFacebook: right2roam To donate to the campaign:  Click the button below or visit: righttoroam.org.uk/donate