Member

In conclusion, I ask the Minister about liability; I notified him about this yesterday. Given that a landowner can be held liable for doing something on their land that interferes with a neighbour’s land, where does the liability rest in this case? Imagine I owned land next to the noble Lord’s, who had been instructed or followed advice by Natural England as to how to manage his land—and because of that management the fuel load increases—and I warn the noble Lord, my neighbour, of the consequences the inevitable wildfire will cause. Sure enough, imagine this happens and destroys some of my property. Who is responsible? Am I entitled to sue Natural England, under the new regulations? Should not its directors face the same consequences as those that the directors for water companies face? It is a pity these regulations have been brought forward in such a hurried state after a short consultation period, and when so much badly needed research is currently being funded to try to get more science into this particularly knotty issue.