We are responsible for protecting and improving the environment of England and Wales. We also have responsibility for protecting communities from the risk of flooding and managing water resources.
We have 12,163 employees and an annual budget of more than £1.3bn a year.
We are a public body - around 70% of our funding comes from government, and most of the rest comes from various charges schemes. We are independent, but we work closely with the government to get the best possible results for the environment.
Although we work across England and Wales, we have regional offices working closely with other regional bodies to develop the right solutions for local environments. We also have area offices working with local authorities and others to tackle the immediate environmental issues in your area.
Our work includes:
- Protecting people from flood
- Working with industry to protect the environment and human health
- Concentrating our effort on higher risk businesses - those that run potentially hazardous operations, or whose performance just isn't coming up to scratch
- Helping business use resources more efficiently
- Taking action against those who don't take their environmental responsibilities seriously - every year we bring hundreds of offenders to justice, leading to millions of pounds of fines.
- Looking after wildlife - we complete around 400 projects every year to improve the places where threatened species live.
- Helping people get the most out of their environment, including boaters and anglers. We sell over a million rod licences a year, many to young people coming into the sport for the first time. All the money we raise goes straight back into improving the places people fish.
- Working with farmers to build their role as guardians of the environment, tackling pollution we cannot see as well as adding to the beauty of the countryside.
- Helping to improve the quality of inner city areas and parks by restoring rivers and lakes.
- Influencing and working with government, industry and local authorities to make the environment a priority.
