Helena Horton

Helena Horton revealed definitively how the environment in the UK is less protected because of post-Brexit divergence. No one else had previously done this work, despite it being something that many environment groups suspected, and there is no government body tracking the divergence between the EU and the UK. Horton spent months analysing the relevant data from the Institute for European Environmental Policy and interviewing experts on what it all meant, producing a report that cut through the complexity to reveal a devastating picture of how, since Brexit, the UK is falling behind the EU on almost every area of environmental regulation.

A terrific political scoop-getter, with a deep network of sources, Horton revealed that then prime minister Rishi Sunak was allowing oil and gas exploration in areas designated for windfarms – an egregious example of the previous government's prioritisation of fossil fuels over renewable energy.

How much green space does the average private school student have access to, compared with a state school student? That was the question that kicked off the Guardian’s deep dive into the peculiar world of property titles and land cover analysis. Horton spotted that the size and breakdown of the UK’s state school estate was in the public realm. A few questions then revealed that no one actually knows how much land is owned by the UK’s private schools. Working with the Guardian’s data team, Horton focused on the schools that are members of the Heads Conference and as the investigation proceeded, it became increasingly clear that these institutions owned huge expanses of green space and made the most of it, recognising what a boon it was for their students and incorporating it into their curricula. Horton also examined state school provision, and discovered that a concerning number of institutions had either very small playgrounds or, in a few cases, none at all. Another example of the disparity in access to green space between rich and poor, the story demonstrates Horton’s relentless drive, eye for an untold story and teamwork.