Environmental Land Management Scheme

(asked on 11th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that tenant farmers will be able to access Environmental Land Management Schemes.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 17th January 2022

We are designing the schemes to be accessible to as many farmers and land managers as possible, including tenant farmers.

As part of our designing in partnership process, we are engaging with a wide range of farmers and land managers to ensure that the future schemes are designed in a way that works for all, to maximise the delivery of environmental outcomes.

We have designed new flexibilities into the Sustainable Farming Incentive, in close consultation with farming organisations, including the Tenant Farmers Association, to ensure the scheme is accessible to tenant farmers. For instance, tenant farmers will be able to enter the scheme without proving they have landlord permission (although they will be responsible for checking their tenancy agreements to ensure they can participate in the scheme before applying).

For the early rollout of the scheme in 2022, scheme agreements will be three years (compared with a minimum of five years in Countryside Stewardship) and there will be annual flexibility to add standards, land, and levels of ambition into agreements.

In the first year, tenants with only two years left on their tenancy will be able to enter into the scheme. We will continue working with stakeholder groups representing tenants on the design of the three environmental land management schemes.

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