The creation of new natural spaces features highly, with the Conservatives promising an 11th National Park and Labour promising three new national forests. All the parties want to push ahead with the Environmental Land Management scheme, but Labour and the Liberal Democrats are keen to cut through what they deem to be Conservative bureaucracy. The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have promised an additional £1 billion for farming, but Labour has not outlined a budget.

Nutrient neutrality requirements have continued to evolve with changes in the Poole catchment, and details have been released about the wastewater treatment works that must be upgraded nationally. Following its discovery in Norfolk and Suffolk, the Forestry Commission is raising awareness of the invasive eight-toothed spruce bark beetle. It has expanded its timber exclusion zone, which affects spruce. Though not quite an invasive species, there is more scientific evidence indicating the presence of a big cat somewhere in the UK.

FOOD & FARMING

Sugar beet seed market liberalised
The sugar beet seed market will become more flexible from 2025. NFU Sugar and British Sugar have agreed to a series of changes to address growers' issues and speed up the introduction of new genetics. Growers and seed breeders will be able to buy and sell seed directly or via third-party suppliers, as well as via the existing UK Seed Account operated by British Sugar.

In addition, changes to the UK Seed Account will mean it sells seeds throughout the year and releases stocks for sale as soon as they become available. The British Beet Research Organisation, NFU, and British Sugar have also initiated changes to the Recommended List trials, which will now evaluate finished products rather than genetics alone. So, the trial results will be more representative of what farmers can buy and how they will grow them. To supply British Sugar, growers will be required to grow varieties that are either on the Recommended List, were on the list in the past year or are on the Variety List and undergoing trials.

Freedom from bird flu
The UK has self-declared freedom from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) for Great Britain. This follows the UK’s largest-ever bird flu outbreak, with 364 cases confirmed across the country since late October 2021. The last case was confirmed on 14 February 2024 and was the only case since November 2023. The World Organisation for Animal Health has reviewed and published the declaration. HPAI H5N1 continues to be found at low levels in wild birds in Great Britain and across Europe, but the current risk to poultry in Britain is deemed low despite outbreaks across several European countries.

Scotland: Crofting law reform
The Scottish Government is asking for views on proposed changes to crofting laws. The principal legislation for crofting is the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993, with the last significant reforms occurring in 2010 through the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010. The consultation runs until 2 September and seeks views on proposals covering:

• Entry to crofting
• Crofting communities
• Use of common grazings
• Strengthening residency and land use
• Enhanced Crofting Commission powers
• Simplifying crofting.

SFI 2023 closed to new applications
The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2023 application process closed for new applications at midnight on 10 June. However, any application that is underway can be submitted; this must be done within 60 days of starting it. The SFI 2024 application process is due to open fully in July, and an expression of interest process is running which can lead to an invitation to apply earlier. For more information about the SFI, see our latest Rural Research briefing note or contact Georgina Sweeting in our Food and Farming team.

POLICY

Agriculture and estates manifesto briefing
Over the last week, most party manifestos for the July 4 election have been published. We have analysed them and produced a briefing note summarising their commitments relating to food and farming, environment, natural capital, energy, infrastructure, planning, taxation, rural properties, and the rural economy. Their commitments include:

Conservatives
The Conservative Party has published its policy plan for farming and the environment in its manifesto. The headline rural announcement is increasing the UK farming budget by £1 billion over the Parliament and ensuring it rises by inflation every year. The party intends to introduce a legally binding target to enhance food security, referred to as the UK Food Security Index. It also wants to designate an 11th National Park, with further investment to improve existing National Parks and protected landscapes. As part of this, the Conservatives want to use future rounds of the Landscape Recovery Scheme to support more local projects.

Water receives a great deal of attention, with the Conservatives seeking to improve the accountability of water companies and give them clearer objectives to focus on. It says it will ban executive bonuses if a company has committed a serious criminal breach.

Labour
Labour has included food and farming pledges throughout its manifesto rather than dedicate one section to the industry. Amongst the pledges is a commitment to continue with Environmental Land Management (ELM), though unlike the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, no specific budget is outlined. Instead, as with other policies, the party says it will not know how much money it can allocate to ELM and farming until it carries out its first spending review.

Labour’s animal welfare plans include banning trail hunting and the use of snare traps. However, its plans for bovine TB eradication have caught the most headlines. The party says it will work with farmers and scientists to eradicate bovine TB so that it can end the “ineffective” badger cull. Animal welfare pledges also extend to trade, where Labour says it will protect British farmers and stop them from being undercut by imports produced to standards that would be illegal in the UK.

As part of plans to improve access to nature, Labour promises to create a new National River Walk in each region of England, totalling nine new routes. It will also establish three new National Forests in England, create new woodlands, and plant millions of trees. Before the release of its manifesto, Labour discussed several other issues - the party pledged to clamp down on high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) and ultra-processed foods, and it also sought to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, including ending temporary exemption permits. Neither of these issues is mentioned in the final manifesto.

Liberal Democrats
As with the headline rural proposal from the Conservative manifesto, the Liberal Democrat manifesto also promises an extra £1 billion a year for farming. In promising a fair deal for farmers, the manifesto sets out a plan to introduce a range of other public money for public goods programmes, such as nature recovery, planting trees and protecting wildlife. These programmes would be conditional on land managers entering the ELM scheme, which the Liberal Democrats also plan to accelerate.

Access to healthy and nutritious food, produced to high welfare and environmental standards, is a central tenet of the manifesto. As such, public procurement and trade agreements focus on achieving this. The party aims to renegotiate the Australia and New Zealand trade agreements in line with its objectives, threatening to withdraw from the agreements if they cannot be negotiated accordingly. As for procurement, the Liberal Democrats want policy to support the consumption of food produced to high environmental and social sustainability standards.

With the environment, the Liberal Democrats believe farmers are a key ally in tackling climate change. As well as the promise to commit money to farming in an environmentally friendly way, the party wants to offer independent advice about transitioning to new environmental farm payment schemes. It would support farmers in reducing the pollution of watercourses and reward farmers for reducing the use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides.

ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL CAPITAL

Bark beetle tree pest spreads
The Forestry Commission has extended its Ips typographus demarcated area following the discovery of the invasive eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) in Suffolk and Norfolk. Unless authorised by the Commission, the felling and movement of all spruce material is prohibited in this area. Woodland managers must also provide written notification to the Forestry Commission if they intend to fell or kill any spruce trees (Picea A. Dietr) over three metres in height. The demarcated area already covered parts of Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey, City of London, Greater London, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent, Essex and Hampshire. The extension includes parts of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk.

The eight-toothed spruce bark beetle has the potential to cause significant damage to the UK’s forestry and timber industries, particularly Norway spruce trees. It was first identified in Kent in 2018. Though it prefers stressed or dying trees, it can bore into the wood of healthy trees, where it attracts mates and lays eggs. Any suspected beetle findings can be reported using the TreeAlert online portal.

Scotland: Record peatland restoration rates
More than 10,000 hectares of damaged peatland have been restored in Scotland over the last year, and the average rate of peatland restoration has more than doubled in the previous two years. Peatlands cover nearly two million hectares of Scotland, accounting for two-thirds of the UK’s peatland. Almost three-quarters of Scotland’s peatland is degraded, and peatlands lead to 15% of Scotland’s annual CO2 emissions.

PROPERTY & DEVELOPMENT

Nutrient neutrality advice partially lifted
Developers in the Poole Harbour catchment will now only need to mitigate for nitrogen pollution as Natural England has lifted the nutrient neutrality advice for phosphorus. This is because the planned upgrades to wastewater treatment works in the area are so significant that they will reduce phosphorus to levels consistent with conservation objectives. Defra estimates the upgrades combined with increased provision of nitrogen mitigation credits will free thousands of new homes from the planning backlog.

A list of 140 wastewater treatment works across England has also been released. Under powers in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, these works must all be upgraded by 2030 to decrease the amount of nutrient pollution emitted into protected waterways. They must achieve specific nutrient removal standards by 1 April 2030. For example, total nitrogen concentration must not exceed 10 mg per litre in treated effluent and 0.25mg per litre for total phosphorus. Local planning authorities will be legally obliged to assume that these upgrades will have occurred by 2030. Development can happen in the impacted areas by securing appropriate mitigation for any remaining pollution. If you want to discuss nutrient neutrality projects and credits, please contact Julia Pound.

Scotland: review of wood-burning stoves
The Scottish Government will review a new law that effectively bans wood-burning stoves in new build homes. It came into effect on 1 April 2024 and was designed to help reduce air pollution and ensure that heat pumps and heat networks were preferred. The new rules have no impact on properties that already have the appliances but do apply to those looking to change the use of an existing property. Some exemptions include using the burner as an emergency heating system or for frost protection. Minister for Climate Action Gillian Martin said she would adapt the New Build Heat Standard regulations to suit the differing needs of urban and rural areas after rural groups called for a change. Details are yet to emerge on what changes will be made to address what Ms Martin called issues of inflexibility.

BUSINESS & economy

Impact of the agricultural transition?
Defra has just published its latest Agriculture in the United Kingdom publication, covering 2023. The results suggest the number of holdings has fallen by 3.2% since 2021, when the agricultural transition started in England. There appears to be an acceleration in recent years as over the ten years to 2023, the number of holdings fell by a total of 5.8%. The reduction is most significant for holdings under 20 hectares, now 6.4% fewer than in 2021. Strictly speaking, a better comparator would be 2020, as the last year before the transition started, but the usual survey was not conducted due to Covid. There was a labour force survey in 2020, and the results of it suggest a 2.1% reduction in the total agricultural labour force since 2020.

OTHER RURAL NEWS

And finally…
Is a big cat roaming the UK countryside?

The DNA of a big cat has been identified from a swab taken from a dead sheep in the Lake District. The DNA is from an animal of the Panthera genus, likely a leopard. It is the first big cat DNA found on a carcass in the UK. The analysis was carried out at the University of Warwick laboratory run by Professor Robin Allaby. Professor Allaby started the testing service 12 years ago when a roe deer carcass was discovered in a small valley near Stroud in Gloucestershire. In that case, fox DNA was found. Professor Allaby has previously identified a claw that was sent to him as belonging to a cat in the Panthera genus. This latest news follows the 2022 discovery of strands of black animal hair on a barbed wire fence in Gloucestershire belonging to a big cat.

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