The government is failing on almost all of its environmental targets, risking an “irreversible spiral of decline” in nature, a damning report by the environment watchdog has found.

Dame Glenys Stacey, chair of the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), has said in the report, published today, that if action is not taken England will fail to meet its goal of halting nature’s decline by 2030, as well as a host of other vital nature targets.