Membership

Lord Lindsay has been appointed as a member in his own right. He was formerly a member ex officio, representing the Secretary of State for Scotland's Advisory Group on Sustainable Development.

International Events

The Chairman will attend two international meetings of National Councils of Sustainable Development: an Asia-Pacific workshop to be held in Japan on 31 January - 1 February 2000 and a Millennium Global Forum to be held in New York on 16-18 April 2000.

Round Table Publications

The Round Table's Response to Consultation on the Sustainable Development Commission was published in October and is available from the secretariat and on this website.

Meetings with Ministers and Others

The Chairman and Peter Madden met Michael Meacher on 9 November to discuss the current work programme of the Round Table and preparations for the new Sustainable Development Commission. Following the meeting, and discussion at the plenary (see below), the Chairman has written to the Minister suggesting a revised remit for the Commission and reinforcing the need for adequate funding and a well-resourced secretariat.

With Maria Adebowale, the Chairman met Hilary Armstrong on 25 November, to discuss sustainable development at the level of the English regions and local government.

The Minister indicated that forthcoming legislation would include a power for a local authority to promote the economic, social and environmental well-being of its area. She supported the proposal to hold a conference on sustainable development in the regions, which she would attend and address.

With Sir John Harman, the Chairman met members and officials from the Local Government Association to discuss the proposed well-being power (see above). The Round Table advocates reinforcing the power with a duty on each authority to produce a sustainable development strategy of its own. There was broad agreement on this from the LGA and the Round Table will continue to pursue it.

The Chairman and Corrie McChord visited Edinburgh on 9 & 10 November and met a range of people, from the public, private and voluntary sectors, to discuss taking forward the sustainable development agenda in Scotland. There was strong support for a Scottish body to be set up and for it to have links to the new Commission. They also met the Scottish Minister for Environment and Transport, Sarah Boyack. They discussed the timing of setting up the new Commission, in the light of developments in Scotland. The Chairman has since written to Michael Meacher about these issues.

The Chairman went to Cardiff on 23 November, to meet the Assembly Secretary for Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Christine Gwyther. Again he was also able to meet a number of key people who are taking forward the sustainable development agenda in Wales. The Welsh Assembly is alone in having a statutory duty to prepare a strategy for sustainable development.

A visit to Belfast to meet the Minister for the Environment and others has been postponed in the light of the formation the Northern Ireland Executive. The Chairman now hopes to visit in February 2000.

Plenary Meeting

The Round Table held its sixth plenary meeting this year on 17 November. The main topics discussed were as follows.

Meetings
The Chairman reported on the meetings described above.

Legislative programme
Andrew Burchell of DETR reported that a number of Bills in the legislative programme, being announced in the Queen's Speech that day, touched on issues of sustainable development. These included Bills on countryside access, transport, utility regulation and local government (including a power to promote the well-being of the area). There would be legislation to create a commonhold lease and an advanced drafting Bill on water abstraction. The Queen's Speech also referred to action on climate change.

The Round Table broadly welcomed the Bills. The Chairman was asked to write to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, drawing attention to previous work by the Round Table in the areas covered and seeking further discussion about the legislation. He would also write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about his pre-Budget statement. The Chairman has since written to the DPM and the Chancellor; a meeting has been arranged to discuss sustainable development in the context of utility regulation and of local authorities.

Developing a language of sustainable development
The Round Table received a presentation by Quadrangle Consulting on their research, for the Sustainable Development Educational Panel, into developing a language of sustainable development. The researchers had worked with small groups who were either 'influencers' or members of the public. They found that the term "sustainable development" evoked little response from the public and the most helpful approach in discussion was to introduce its three pillars - social, economic and environmental - then follow them with the definition, then introduce the term itself.

Quadrangle felt that visual imagery could be more effective as a communication tool than words. As an example, they had produced a three-faced pyramid which could be used as a symbol in publication or as a gateway to a web-site. It could be a global image for sustainable development as it did not require translation.

Sustainable Development Commission: issues arising from the consultation
Dinah Nichols of DETR reported that responses so far received from the consultation had broadly reflected the consensus that had emerged at the seminar on 21 September. The Commission should report directly to the Prime Minister in order to maintain a high profile for sustainable development within Government. It should be sponsored by the Cabinet Office, though DETR would continue to provide day-to-day support.

The Commission should be a leading advocate of sustainable development and should promote good practice. It should: try to reach consensus and flag up areas where consensus could not be reached; have a strong monitoring role but not duplicate the role of the Environment Audit Committee; make an annual assessment of progress, with reference to the indicators; and carry out short studies on specific topics. Membership should be drawn from a wide range of sectors.

In discussion, it was noted that the Commission would need to be sensitive in developing relationships with the devolved administrations. The new body might be perceived to be English; but several members of the Round Table were from UK-wide bodies and would not wish to be seen as representing England only.

Land use planning
The Round Table considered a draft submission to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution's study on Planning. It was suggested that: the submission focused mainly on England but the principles were UK-wide; it should highlight the importance of the land-use planning system as a potential tool for sustainable development, its relationship to other planning systems and the role of the Regional Development Agencies and Regional Planning Guidance.

The response should reflect the concerns of business that the system was slow, capricious and impenetrable. It should encourage a link between development plans and the new community planning process. Credit should be given to the Government's new legislation giving local authorities power to enter into partnerships in support of community planning.

The subgroup has since revised the submission in the light of discussion and of comments from DETR. The submitted text is available from the secretariat and will be drawn to the attention of other interested bodies.

Modernising the economy
Members were told that a contract had been let to EFTEC and CSERGE consultants to draft a report on the perceived barriers to environmental taxation, especially social equity and international competitiveness. This would add to the paper already prepared by Paul Ekins, setting out a vision for a sustainable economy. In the light of these, the subgroup would prepare a report for consideration at the plenary meeting on 19 January 2000. A seminar would be held in February or March to discuss the results of the study with key political advisors, senior civil servants and business people.

Devolved, regional and local issues
Chief Executives of the RDAs, along with Chairmen of Regional Round Tables and other senior regional policy makers, are to be invited to a conference on 23 February 2000 to look at sustainable development in the regions. A contract has been let to ERM to review the Regional Economic Strategies, the sustainable development appraisals of them and other key regional documents, and to present a paper on progress and highlight some examples of best practice.

Progress with devolved and local issues is described above.

Indicators of sustainable development
The main work of the subgroup on indicators is to offer a critique of the Government's report Quality of life counts, published on 8 December. A consultancy has been let to CAG to assess the report, in preparation for a seminar to gather a wider range of views to inform the Round Table's response. This will be held on 13 January 2000 in Birmingham, back-to-back with a DETR event on 14th to consult on how best to design and implement a system for monitoring and reporting progress on sustainable development.

Secretariat