Chalk Streams (UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site)

There are only 260 chalk streams worldwide. Their number is small due to the unique conditions and alchemy needed to form them. They exist only where water filters slowly through chalk aquifers and emerges at springs crystal clear, mineral rich and at a near constant temperature throughout the year. Or rather, that is what used to happen. Today, our chalk streams are in a perilous state. Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our nature and wildlife. Extreme droughts are exacerbating the damage already being done. We are letting our streams be drained dry because of untrammelled growth and allowing water companies and agricultural run-off to create a chemical cocktail of sewage and slurry. Wildlife is suffering. The chalk stream Atlantic salmon is close to extinction in some rivers and rising temperatures threaten the survival of trout. That is why this House should make a clear commitment to restoring and conserving these rivers.

The Government have themselves recognised the value of chalk streams, and a Minister once observed that,

“If our chalk streams were buildings, they would be UNESCO heritage sites.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 18 July 2023; Vol. 831, c. 2269.]

Exactly so. UNESCO designation will help to galvanize protection, public engagement and investment in their recovery. The nomination process will take time. Inclusion on the UK’s tentative list is the first step. For that, further research and monitoring, conservation planning and preparation of the case for nomination are needed. A fundamental requirement is the engagement of local government and stakeholders, and networking among them across the broad geographic span of the chalk streams.

In fact, that work has already begun in many communities where they treasure the value of a healthy chalk stream for their physical and mental health and recreation. They are monitoring water quality, acting as stewards in cleaning and maintaining them, and fighting for their survival. These armies of volunteers and civil society groups are incredibly capable and connected, and include the Wildlife Trusts, the national Catchment Based Approach chalk stream restoration group, WildFish and River Action UK. In my constituency—here with us in the Gallery—there are the Cam Valley Forum, the Cam Catchment Partnership, the friends of the River Shep, the Granta and Fulbourn Fen, and the Cambridgeshire climate and nature forum.

We need to see the Government step up and follow through on their assertions about their commitment to chalk stream conservation, because commitment to protection at the national level is an essential prerequisite for nominating a site for world heritage status. The UK has maintained certain legal protections. However, of the 200-plus chalk streams, only 11 are designated as sites of special scientific interest and only four as special areas for conservation. Much more needs to be done to ramp up the action to stop the sewage dumping and the abstraction that we have talked about. That is why I am joining many voices in calling for the listing of chalk streams, alongside ancient woodland, as irreplaceable habitat, which they certainly are, in the national planning policy framework, in line with the Government’s concession and promise during debate in this Chamber to

“make clear, unambiguously, our expectations for how plan makers and decision makers should treat chalk streams.”—[Official Report, 13 November 2025; Vol. 775, c. 407.]

We should also be ringfencing substantial financing from the water restoration fund.

As a nation that prides itself on its love of nature and is preparing to celebrate the 100th birthday of nature’s greatest advocate, Sir David Attenborough, we have a responsibility to act. It is a global responsibility handed to us by the rocks beneath our feet. Let us embrace it and celebrate it. Let us be the global custodians of our very own equivalent of the Galapagos Islands, the Great Barrier Reef and the rainforest. This Bill would start the journey to secure UNESCO recognition for one of the rarest habitats on Earth. We hold 85% of the world’s chalk streams. With that privilege comes responsibility. Let us rise to it. I commend the Bill to the House.

Ordered,

That Pippa Heylings, Dr Roz Savage, Victoria Collins, Charlotte Cane, Liz Jarvis, Dr Danny Chambers, Vikki Slade, Alex Brewer, Olly Glover, Simon Hoare, Carla Denyer and Chris Hinchliff present the Bill.

Pippa Heylings accordingly presented the Bill.