Price to be put on every hill and lake - valuation to be overseen by Professor Dieter Helm

Price to be put on every hill and lake
Sunday Times, 24/06/12
Britain’s mountains, lakes, rivers and beaches are to be given an economic value under plans by George Osborne to audit the entire nation, including its landscape. The valuation will be overseen by Dieter Helm, an Oxford economics professor who has been appointed to lead the government's new natural capital committee, a subcommittee of the cabinet chaired by Osborne but independent of the government. The aim is to find out how much natural assets are worth to the nation, with a value placed even on intangibles such as the beauty of a landscape. Details of the plan were revealed by Caroline Spelman, the environment secretary, at the Rio+20 summit in Brazil last week. She said the first step towards sustainable development was knowing what to protect and that meant natural assets had to be valued.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Environment/article1067...