Flexibility the key

The NFU have called for flexibility as Natural England announced a new approach to green farming schemes which will target money at the country’s most treasured landscapes and important habitats through environmental farm payments.

Farmers and land managers in 110 different areas across England will be encouraged to co-ordinate conservation work across large areas by undertaking similar environmental activities on their land through Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) schemes.

Landowners will be able to select from the same range of HLS options as before, but more effort will be put into targeting those options that can deliver greatest gain for local landscapes and environments.

NFU response

"We welcome a more transparent approach in the decision-making criteria which means potential agreement holders will have a better idea of their likelihood of being accepted into the scheme.

"However, we hope the process will have some flexibility and will build on local knowledge and the benefits already generated by many of the classic schemes which are drawing to a close.

"While we support Environmental Stewardship we trust this new approach will be accompanied by an improvement on reported widespread problems with the processing of HLS agreement applications.

"At a time when the budget for Environmental Stewardship is currently under spent it is vital that those wishing to enter into HLS and are eligible to do so are not prevented because of administrative bottlenecks on Natural England’s part. We also hope this does not mean large scale ’jewel in the crown’ projects are favoured at the expense smaller good quality agreements."