1.3.3 Current government policy proposals

Editor: Will Melling Writers: Bence Borbely, Trevor Chow, Tom Nott, Yang Zuo

farmland management will be inextricably linked to the broader 25 Year Environment Plan goals set by the government.31 Unfortunately, after this paper was researched and written the government announced changes to the Tier system, opting for ‘three components’ that do not map directly onto the previous tiered approach. However, as acknowledged in the ‘Path to Sustainable Farming’ roadmap, DEFRA “refer to components when previously [they] have said tiers”. Therefore, where Tier 1 is discussed, it should be taken to refer to the Sustainable Farming Incentive ‘component’ which covers the majority of recommendations in this paper. Where proposals are related to Tier 2 and 3, they should too fit within the new Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery ‘components’.

1.3.3 Current government proposals under the ELMS

Following a series of consultations running over several years, DEFRA published ‘The Path to Sustainable Farming: An Agricultural Transition Plan 2021 to 2024’ in November 2020. 32 This was the most detailed plan setting out the course for the transition from Direct Payments to the ELMS. The plan outlines that Direct Payments will be tapered off from 2021, the launching of a Farming Investment Fund targeting productivity, improving payments through existing schemes throughout the transitional period, such as the Country Stewardship scheme. As for the ELMS, the announcement set out that the EMLS will be piloted from 2021-2024, and that the government is looking for 5,500 farms to participate in the first stage of implementing the new policy.33 The Sustainable Farming Incentive, a core component of the ELMS, will be rolled out from 2022. This core element of ELMS covers the payments made by DEFRA to farmers for carrying out environmentally sustainable practices including cropland management, livestock management, tree and woodland management, boundary and hedgerow management, soil management, nutrient management, biodiversity and more. Alongside the Sustainable Farming Initiative, there are two further components to ELMS. Firstly, the Local Nature Recovery which will pay for actions to support local nature recovery and deliver local environmental priorities such as restoring habitats, woodland, wetlands, freshwater, peatland, heathland and more. Secondly, the Landscape Recovery will support the delivery of landscape and ecosystem recovery in the long-term, land use change projects including the restoration of wilder landscapes where appropriate, large-scale tree planting and peatland restoration.

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31 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, ‘At a glance: summary of targets in our 25 year environment plan’ (2019) <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/25-year-environment-plan/25-yearenvironment-plan-our-targets-at-a-glance>, accessed 10 December 2020 32 DEFRA, ‘The Path to Sustainable Farming: An Agricultural Transition Plan 2021 to 2024’, (2020) accessible at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/954283/agricu ltural-transition-plan.pdf. 33 GOV.UK, ‘Government unveils path to sustainable farming from 2021’ (2020) accessible at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-unveils-path-to-sustainable-farming-from-2021 34 Ibid, p 32-3.