Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what further steps they plan to take to support and protect upland and hill farmers to offset any loss of income they face under the new environmental land management schemes.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Upland farmers play a vital role in managing some of our most important and iconic landscapes, which are valued and recognised by the public. In addition to farming, the management of upland landscapes can provide many environmental benefits and ecosystem services, including clean air and water, carbon sequestration and flood risk management.
Upland farmers are well placed to benefit from our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, which are designed to maintain sustainable, productive land which delivers for both farmers and the environment.
The schemes under ELM have been designed to be as accessible and attractive to as wide a range of farmers as possible. We continue to work closely with a range of environmental and agricultural stakeholders to collaboratively design our new approaches to ensure they are fit for purpose.
Support for small farmers, including upland farmers, includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) Management Payment. At the recent National Farmers Union Conference, the Prime Minister announced that this payment will be doubled to a maximum of £2000 per year. At the Conference the Prime Minister also announced the biggest ever package of grants this year, to boost productivity and resilience, which will total £220 million. Upland farmers will be eligible to benefit from this, through increases to the Improving Farming Productivity scheme and the Farming Equipment and Technology fund. And the Prime Minister announced that the Government is also increasing funding for grassroots mental health support, because we know what a tough job farming is; and providing funding to support food producers by redirecting surplus food into the hands of those who need it.
This builds on support already in place for upland farmers. Upland farmers can get paid for over 130 relevant actions under Countryside Stewardship and the SFI from 2024. This will include new moorland and upland peat actions, with considerably higher payments for moorlands in good environmental condition. They can also extend their Higher Level Stewardship agreements for five years if they have one that can run alongside any Countryside Stewardship or SFI agreement they have, allowing them to get paid for more actions and take advantage of recent price increases. And they can apply for Countryside Stewardship Wildlife Offers for a range of management options that focus on providing habitats for farm wildlife.
Upland farmers in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or National Parks can apply for the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme, which funds farmers to support nature recovery, mitigate the impacts of climate change, provide opportunities for people to discover, enjoy and understand the landscape and its cultural heritage, or protect or improve the quality and character of the landscape or place. And upland farmers can continue to benefit from the Landscape Recovery scheme, creating the landscape scale and tailored environmental land management change we need for our targets. So far 56 successful projects have been selected for Rounds 1 and 2 of Landscape Recovery, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to funding that delivers environmental benefits in harmony with food production. Defra will open a third round of Landscape Recovery in 2024.
Oct. 27 2009
Source Page: Tables showing the number of individuals paid £200,000 or more under the single farm payment scheme and how much was paid to each such recipient in each such year from 2006 to 2008. 4 p.Found: HYSLOP236499.02H R PHILPOT & SON (BARLEYLANDS) LTD236619.8GREAT OAKLEY FARMS LIMITED237321.79NORTH HILL
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will list all Government investments in the farming sector in Christchurch constituency since 1 April 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has supported the farming and rural sector through payments under a range of schemes.
Since 1 April 2023, the RPA has released through schemes and grants approximately £326k in the Christchurch constituency. A breakdown of these figures is in the table below.
Basic Payment Scheme | Countryside Stewardship Scheme | Environmental Stewardship | Sustainable Farm Incentive | Other Grants | Total |
£218,516 | £57,616 | £21,286 | £5,602 | £22,802 | £325,822 |
There are no species recovery or landscape recovery projects funded within the Christchurch constituency.
There are no live Conservation and Enhancement Scheme agreements.
The Dorset peat project is Defra funded. However, there are no peat restoration sites within the constituency boundary – sites at Cannon Hill and Holt Heath are close to the boundary.
The only project to highlight which falls within the constituency is the Salisbury to sea (Christchurch Harbour) fish barrier removal study, which also incorporates floodplain reconnection opportunities funded by Network Rail but is being managed and contracted by Natural England in partnership with the Environment Agency.
Except for New Forest Higher Level Stewardship there are no other funds that Natural England is aware of linked to New Forest National Park which overlaps at the east boundary of the constituency.
There are Countryside Stewardship agreements funded and associated investment of time by Natural England staff locally on agri agreements and Catchment Sensitive Farming (Stour and Avon catchments) within the Christchurch constituency.
Mentions:
1: Nigel Evans (Con - Ribble Valley) Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Liam Byrne), will speak for up to 10 minutes, during which no interventions - Speech Link
2: Richard Foord (LD - Tiverton and Honiton) accession, we will not open up our markets to unmanageable volumes of produce that will damage British farming - Speech Link
3: Greg Hands (Con - Chelsea and Fulham) Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Liam Byrne) and his report. - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Ben Lake (PC - Ceredigion) It notes how hill cattle and sheep farms made a profit of some £24,000 after rent and finance, but excluding - Speech Link
2: Greg Smith (Con - Buckingham) The determination of the Ministry of Justice to compulsorily purchase a farm adjacent to HMP Spring Hill - Speech Link
3: George Freeman (Con - Mid Norfolk) We need a long-term, secure policy, that has enough support and flexibility to allow marginal hill farmers - Speech Link
4: Robbie Moore (Con - Keighley) Hill and upland farmers have been mentioned, and I want to take the opportunity to highlight the offer - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Fairlie, Jim (SNP - Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) I was looking recently at the Hill Farming Act 1946 in order to discover things about muirburn. - Speech Link
2: None the effects of the current English legislation, I would just point out that, once basic payments go, hill - Speech Link
3: None At the moment, most of the money goes to the people with the most or the best land, not to hill farmers - Speech Link
4: None certain parts of England that will be counterproductive to environmental delivery, whereas, if you are a hill - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Jim Shannon (DUP - Strangford) Hailing as I do from a farming constituency, I have a deep and intricate interest in the defence of farmers - Speech Link
2: Alistair Carmichael (LD - Orkney and Shetland) that consumers are most likely to buy on.If the Government are sincere in wanting to keep productive farming - Speech Link
3: Kevin Hollinrake (Con - Thirsk and Malton) My father was a hill farmer, and I represent a rural constituency with many farmers who are experiencing - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Daniel Zeichner (Lab - Cambridge) of effective tools to prevent such problems and their financial consequences.We recognise that the farming - Speech Link
Apr. 05 2024
Source Page: Environmental permits and waste incineration facilities: ministerial directionFound: Sir Mark Spencer MP Minister of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries Seacole Building 2 Marsham