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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Landscape Recovery scheme pilot will also include blocks of land that are hydrologically connected, rather than contiguous, to assess how to maximise the benefits of floodplain restoration, including sustainable regenerative farming.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The first round of Landscape Recovery is open to bids from projects of 500 to 5,000 hectares of broadly contiguous land.

The application process for this round will be competitive and bids will be assessed against set criteria. The environmental outcomes that projects will deliver will be assessed as part of the environmental objectives criterion. As part of this criterion, we will assess a range of benefits which could be delivered by floodplain restoration, including for biodiversity, resilience to extreme weather events and improving water quality.

Contiguity is important for many of the environmental outcomes we are seeking. However, we recognise that habitats and land ownership in England are sometimes fragmented, so we will take a pragmatic approach to contiguity. Project areas can have some gaps, but applicants should demonstrate how any gaps will not compromise their project’s environmental outcomes. This will be assessed as part of the ‘project leadership and delivery’ criterion.

We are not ruling out projects which include elements of farming in the landscape. However, projects that are mainly focused on sustainable and regenerative farming or making space for nature in the farmed landscape are likely to be better suited to other schemes such as Countryside Stewardship, the Sustainable Farming Incentive and, in due course, Local Nature Recovery.