Frustration as Defra puts off ELM payment details until the new year

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has warned that farmer confidence in the government’s Environmental Land Management scheme is on the brink of “disappearing forever”, as frustration grows at further delays to the confirmation of future payment rates.

CLA president Mark Tufnell told the organisation’s annual business conference the delays were unacceptable and that the lack of clarity was akin to buying “something from the shop without knowing the price”. 

Defra secretary Therese Coffey then told the conference that she was unable to “make the announcements today”, but promised Defra would be announcing what it will be offering to pay in the next phase of all the schemes “early in the new year.”

See also: Delays to ELM may push farmers to intensive production 

Ms Coffey said Defra’s review of Environmental Land Management (ELM) was complete and confirmed the government would be moving forward with three schemes.

For the Sustainable Farming Incentive, the aim remains to get as many farmers as possible signed up, with the core focus around improving soil health.

Ms Coffey confirmed that an “enhanced” version of Countryside Stewardship (CS) would become the second tier of ELM, replacing plans for Local Nature Recovery (LNR).

It is understood that this will involve adding elements not currently offered within CS.

This includes payments for a wider range of actions that will help meet the original environmental and climate change targets. 

The mooted “Countryside Stewardship plus” will also be less prescriptive and more flexible, so farmers can apply in a way that works best for their businesses. 

Part of the reason for replacing LNR with this enhanced CS scheme is that there are already 32,000 farmers and landowners signed up to the scheme – a 92% increase in three years. “Something must be working,” said Ms Coffey.

The Defra secretary also said 22 pilot projects for the third strand of ELM – Landscape Recovery – were ongoing.

“We have listened to your concerns, we’ve learned from your experiences and I hope we’ve made a lot of improvements, but we know there’s a lot more to do,” Ms Coffey told the conference.

“My hope is that you will find it relatively quick and easy to identify a set of actions that works for your business, sign up for payments and crack on with your plan to make your business more resilient, more sustainable, more profitable, and indeed more productive in the months and years ahead.”