Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
8
The ELM scheme consists of three components: • The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), which will...
Conclusion
The ELM scheme consists of three components: • The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), which will pay farmers for actions to manage their land in an environmentally sustainable way; 2 C&AG’s Report, The Environmental Land Management scheme, Session 2021–22, HC 664, 15 September 2021 3 C&AG’s Report, para 1 - 3 4 Committee of Public Accounts, Progress on the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme, Fortieth Report of Session 2016–17, HC 766,10 February 2017 5 Q 43; C&AG’s Report, para 1 – 3; Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment, January 2018 6 C&AG’s Report, para 1.10 10 Environmental Land Management Scheme • Local Nature Recovery, which will pay farmers for more complex actions that deliver benefits at a local level and encourage collaboration between farmers; • Landscape Recovery, which will support large-scale projects to deliver landscape and ecosystem recovery through long-term land-use change projects.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
Introduction from the Committee For more than 40 years, the farming sector has been supported by subsidies through the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). English farmers receive around £2.4 billion annually. In recent years, around four-fifths of this were provided as direct payments based primarily on the amount of land farmed. Following the UK’s exit from the EU, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (the Department) is introducing the Future Farming and Countryside Programme, which will focus on improving the environment, protecting the countryside, improving the productivity of the farming sector and improving animal health and welfare. The Department plans to reduce the amount of money provided to farmers through direct payments each year from 2021 and remove them entirely by 2027. The resulting funds will be used to provide environmental benefits instead. The Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme is the most significant of the new schemes being introduced. The scheme will have significant implications for the farming sector. Over a third of farmers would have made a loss over the last three years without direct payments. It is also a crucial part of the Department’s plans to achieve the wider environmental objectives of the government’s 25-Year Environment Plan and to meet government’s net zero target by 2050. ELM will pay farmers for actions to improve the environment. It will consist of three components, each of which is planned for full launch in 2024. In the meantime, the first component, the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), is being piloted in 2021 and the Department plans to begin roll-out in 2022. This initial roll-out of SFI is intended to allow farmers to start earning income for providing environmental benefits as the current system of direct payments start to be phased out. Farmers and other landowners will also have access to other schemes funded by the removal of direct payments, including programmes focussed on promoting productivity such as the Farm Resilience Scheme.