The Foundation for Common Land (FCL) has slammed Defra’s decision to exclude low input and unimproved grassland from its Sustainable Farming Incentive - a scheme which is supposed to bridge the transition from the ‘old’ BPS payments system to the new English Environmental Land Management (ELM) public goods payment scheme.
Under Defra’s Agricultural Transition Plan, English farmers with a claim of £30,000 or less will see a five per cent cut to their BPS in 2021, followed by a 20 per cent cut in 2022, 35 per cent in 2023 and 50 per cent in 2024. Higher payments will be cut by significantly more.
With work on England’s Environmental Land Management scheme still in its early stages, the Sustainable Farming Incentive was supposed to fill the gap caused by the cuts to BPS payments.
However, despite Defra’s commitment that all English BPS applicants would be able to apply including those in existing Stewardship Schemes, low input and unimproved grassland - some of England’s most precious wildlife habitats - have been excluded.
According to the Foundation for Common Land, much of England’s lowland unimproved grassland is common land, including 20,000 ha of the New Forest, the Malvern Hills and Minchinhampton, the Devon heathlands and Cumbria’s coastal marshes.
The Foundation highlights that while the farmers and commoners managing this land will be losing their BPS over the next seven years, unlike farmers on improved grassland, arable land and moorland they will not have the opportunity through the Sustainable Farming Incentive to be rewarded for public goods not yet paid for by existing Stewardship Schemes.
Speaking after Defra announced details of the Sustainable Farming Incentive in late June, Julia Aglionby, Executive Director of the Foundation, said: “This is a broken promise by this [UK] Government.
“The Agricultural Transition Plan says; ‘Initially, all farmers currently in receipt of the Basic Payment Scheme will be eligible [for SFI], including those already in land management schemes such as Countryside Stewardship.’
“This is clearly not true if you farm unimproved lowland grassland. Our concern is that these most special places will be at risk as farmers come under pressure due to declining incomes as BPS is phased out. Lowland commons deliver so much for nature, climate, and people especially during Covid; why would you disadvantage them?”
It’s estimated that around 2,000 Welsh BPS claimants rely on common land for between 25% and 100% of their BPS eligible area, with the proportion of farmers who are reliant on common rights particularly high in some areas such as parts of the Brecon Beacons.
As such, the FUW urges the Welsh Government to learn from the difficulties farmers in England are facing as BPS is phased out and recognise that any future agricultural support scheme in Wales must deliver for every farm for the benefit of Wales’ rural communities, culture, economies and the environment.
