Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 34
The financial incentives the Government is providing must make it economically viable to plant trees.
Recommendation
The financial incentives the Government is providing must make it economically viable to plant trees. The overall direction of travel is laudable, and the interim English Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) provides better incentives than previous schemes. However, getting to net zero may be held up by a lack of progress and clarity on the Government’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, and how the EWCO and ELM schemes will fit together. We recommend that Defra and the Forestry Commission urgently prioritise the publication of a clear and detailed timeline for the introduction of the ELM schemes, including how the EWCO and ELM schemes will fit together, by May 2022. It is essential that Defra does this promptly give farmers and others the certainty they need to kickstart planting. By September 2022, Defra should also publish and invite comments on its modelling that underpins the new incentives regime for tree planting.
Government Response Summary
Farmers and land managers who take up EWCO now will be able to transfer their contract into a future environmental land management scheme at future agreed points without any loss of benefits. More details on the full list of options under the Local Nature Recovery scheme (LNR) will be published later in 2022.
Paragraph Reference:
34
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Farmers and land managers who take up EWCO now will be able to transfer their contract into a future environmental land management scheme at future agreed points without any loss of benefits. As Defra Ministers have previously said, no one will unfairly disadvantaged by planting trees now rather than waiting for ELM schemes. This is because ELM schemes for woodland will be based on EWCO rather than designing any separate scheme from the ground up. We published further information regarding our environmental land management schemes in January 2022 and committed to publishing more details on the full list of options under the Local Nature Recovery scheme (LNR) later in 2022. This will include how farmers can get involved, as well as more details on scheme rules and how much we will pay for options to allow people to plan their participation in the scheme. We recognise that providing certainty and clarity on the new environmental land management schemes