HHLE Property Matters Autumn Winter 21 - Flipbook - Page 16
Environmental Land
Management (ELM)
Scheme – Payment
Principles Announced
The Government have announced four principles
they will adopt for setting payment rates within ELM.
Payment rates will:
1. L
ook to encourage wide participation; with the aim
that 70% of farmers enter into the Scheme by 2028 (in
comparison with less than a third now)
2.Be based on the environmental outcomes being
delivered
David Morley
MCIEEM
Head of Conservation & Environment
david.morley@hhlandestates.co.uk
M: 07834 658953
With regard to the rollout of ELM in upland areas,
the Government is still looking at whether they need
a different approach to payment rates. This will be
critical to many upland farmers, who have long been
disadvantaged by poor payment rates in Countryside
Stewardship, despite the range of public goods they
produce, including:
•
Clean water & clean air
3.Be linked to the value of existing natural assets;
those already managing them effectively won’t be
disadvantaged
•
Healthy soils
•
Biodiversity & habitat management
•
Beautiful landscapes
4.Be part of a growing market that will include
both public and private funding for delivering
environmental outcomes
•
Adaptation to climate change & flood mitigation
•
onservation of historic environment & cultural
C
heritage
•
Public engagement & access
This means the Government is moving away from the
historic method of calculating environmental scheme
payment rates, which were based on “income foregone
plus costs”, giving them more flexibility in effectively
rewarding farmers for the environmental gains they
deliver.
Agriculture Minister, George Eustice, recently
suggested that payment rates could be 30% higher than
the current Countryside Stewardship Scheme, although
they will need to be much higher than that to come
anywhere near making up for the shortfall in the Basic
Payment Scheme.
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Property Matters
Payments based on the value to society of the public
goods being delivered would be a fairer approach,
although these values can be very complex to calculate
with any degree of accuracy or consistency.
In addition, DEFRA have indicated they will be
looking at adjusting the payment rates in Countryside
Stewardship, to encourage greater participation over the
last couple of years of the Scheme. The Government
have also recognised that paying environmental scheme
income annually in arrears is not helpful in terms of
cashflow and are investigating ways to pay farmers more
frequently.
