Countryside Stewardship and the new Environmental Land Management Scheme

Countryside Stewardship

The end of August marks the closing date for applications for Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) higher-tier agreements and the extended date for mid-tier projects.

After completing a number of detailed applications for clients, this means I now have a chance to reflect on the CSS and the forthcoming Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS), which will be the principal way that the government supports farmers and landowners post-Brexit.  

Our Agri-Consultancy team has been working on some fascinating schemes, including a higher–tier project to restore native hay meadows in Devon that involves establishing a native breed herd of cattle and flock of sheep

Despite these successes, the feedback from a number of the Natural England advisors who we have been working with was that the number of 2020 applications was, once again, disappointingly low.  

This meant they would not be scoring them, essentially guaranteeing all the applications would be accepted and agreements offered. 

Confirmation by DEFRA that the greening obligations for Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) claims for 2021 and onwards have been removed allows applicants to amend recently submitted schemes. 

While this will probably result in the enlarging of some proposals it will not substantially change the total area of agreements for 2020.     

Although I am frustrated by this situation, I am not surprised by the lack of interest.  

Last year DEFRA reported that only 35-40% of farmers were in stewardship schemes and many are either not entering CSS or renewing agreements while they wait for the introduction of ELMS. 

I think that this is a missed opportunity.  

Notwithstanding the ecological and environmental benefit that CSS can deliver, in a number of situations if would be more financially economical to put land into CSS than farm it.  

There are also a number of options that complement existing farming systems and it is not a case of ‘CSS or farming’ – you can have both.  

This economic justification will become even more important with the tapering of BPS following Brexit, which will undoubtedly have an impact on farm profitability.  

I hope that this will be the catalyst for farms to start to seriously review the role that stewardship can and should play moving forward.  

"We are continually discussing with clients about what the primary function of their land should be."

Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash

Just because it has always been arable or that is what has happened for decades does not mean that it is the right thing to continue to do – financially, ecologically or environmentally.  

The reality is that how we use land will change and this should be embraced.  For some the reality is that the only way for them to remain financially viable will be to become a land steward or ‘conservation farmer’ and then build a farming system around it and not the other way around.  

This requires an openness and willingness to adapt and change on the part of the land manager, but the process is not as complicated as many make it out to be.  

We have all experienced issues with Natural England and the Rural Payments Agency, but generally these are relatively isolated and can be easily resolved. 

The Environmental Land Management Scheme

There have been various updates recently regarding ELMS.  

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash

When the scheme was first announced I was initially very optimistic and excited, but over the past few weeks I now started to worry that this may not be the scheme that we had all hoped that it would be.  

I am really concerned about the reported shift from payment by result to payment by action. If this is true then this is a significant step backwards and regrettable. 

Although potentially simpler for DEFRA and farmers to administer, we should not shy away from our responsibility as land managers and long term custodians of land. 

We should be encouraging DEFRA to stick to a payments-by-results system to ensure that ELMS delivers true environmental and ecological protection and enhancement of the natural environment and rewards farmers for doing this.  

Previous schemes like CSS pay by actions and DEFRA’s own reports acknowledge that, as a whole, they have delivered little environmentally and ecologically – why would we therefore want or find acceptable to go back to have yet another scheme run on this basis especially given the long term environmental targets that the UK has set.  

Hopefully the ELMS pilots will provide some useful feedback to DEFRA.  I will be really interested to read them, although given that they are not due to start until the autumn of 2021 and the main the scheme is pencilled to go live in 2024 there will not much be much time to evaluate and amend the scheme if needed. 

There is a real risk that any substantial changes required may not be implemented for budgetary and or timing reasons, which would be a great shame. 

Sadly I am worried that DEFRA may not deliver what it had initially indicated and what farming and rural businesses had so hoped for – I hope that I may be proved wrong.  

For more information on Countryside Stewardship and making your rural property ready for the post-Brexit world please get in touch with Tom

Main photo by Nick Hawkes on Unsplash