Landowners are therefore being offered the chance to modify their already submitted Countryside Stewardship applications to reflect this. The successor to Countryside Stewardship, the Environmental Land Management scheme, could bear many similarities to old agri-environment schemes if new evidence is to be believed. Documents released by Defra suggest farmers will be paid for actions, not outcomes, and only compensated for income foregone and costs. The proposals could also see BPS payments wound down more rapidly than expected, adding to the difficulties suffered in 2020, with one of the worst wheat harvests in decades compounding challenges presented by Covid-19. Government support has been found lacking throughout the crisis. For example only 174 applications have been made for support from dairy enterprises and although the application window has been extended the eligibility criteria remains unchanged which many feel is preventing dairy farmers from accessing the support.

FOOD & FARMING

Amend submitted Countryside Stewardship applications
The end of the Basic Payment Scheme greening obligation from 2021 will remove the risk of double-funded land under the Countryside Stewardship (CS) and BPS. The RPA can therefore end the present restriction whereby 18 CS management options cannot overlap with Ecological Focus Areas declared on a farmer’s BPS application. To allow those customers who would otherwise have expected to undertake BPS greening on their holdings in 2021 to benefit from this increased flexibility, farmers can now amend their already submitted CS 2021 Mid-Tier and Higher Tier applications. Those applicants with a history of declaring the relevant greening features on their BPS applications will be contacted to alert them to this opportunity. Potential amendments concerning the 18 listed CS options include:

• Adding more land parcels

• Increasing the amount of land

• Changing the location of areas being used

Worst wheat harvest in decades
The NFU is predicting the worst harvest since the 1980s with wheat yields down by around a third. Problems began with the wettest February ever recorded after many regions were battered by Storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge. The ground was already waterlogged in many areas after a wet winter, and the further downpours meant a poor start to the growing season for many. The sunniest spring on record followed, with the dry weather delaying germination.

The predicted fall in yields will leave the UK as a net importer of grain, meaning a difficult end to a difficult year for many farmers. During the lockdown, farmgate potato prices halved and milk was dumped as the food service industry disappeared overnight. The NFU points out that failure to leave the EU without a deal would only compound problems, with a tariff regime spelling disaster for farm exports.

Organic farm business incomes
Organic farms saw greater income per hectare in 2018 over three of four farming systems when compared to their non-organic alternatives. A review by the Soil Association showed that lowland grazing farms, upland grazing farms and cropping farms all saw greater incomes per hectare as organic farms than non-organic. Cropping farms saw the greatest difference per hectare in net farm income, with organic farms enjoying close to an additional £300 per hectare. Only organic dairy farming, which is the largest sector in the UK organic market, saw incomes below their non-organic counterparts. Organic horticulture and poultry were also reviewed but there was insufficient data to make a robust comparison.

Covid-19

Poor uptake of dairy response fund
The application deadline for the Dairy Response Fund has been extended until midnight on Friday 11 September 2020. The Tenant Farmers Association has said just 174 applications had been made to the Covid-19 Dairy Response Scheme 2020. Of those, 17% were rejected as ineligible and only 55 applicants had received support, totalling about £481,000. Within that total payout, just 35 applicants had been paid the maximum £10,000 grant.

The low numbers seem to validate criticism of tight eligibility when the scheme was first announced in May. Farmers needed to demonstrate that they had suffered at least a 25% drop in their average milk price in April compared with February 2020 and would then be able to claim for 70% of their losses. NFU dairy board chairman Michael Oakes explained many on A/B price contracts would not be able to lodge a claim. Processors cut the B price sharply to incentivise farms to reduce supply after the coronavirus crisis hit demand. Farmers responded by reducing supply to avoid the low-price B litres meaning many would not have seen their average milk price fall by 25% as they continued to be paid for their A litreage but will still have lost thousands of pounds.

Staging outdoor events
For many diversified farms and estates a key question currently is; how can outdoor events be staged in compliance with Covid-19 control measures, and what other factors need to be considered and addressed? Simon Foster a Director in Savills Tourism, Leisure & Events team, recently joined Naomi Nettleton a Real Estate Partner at Charles Russell Speechlys to discuss a number of aspects with regards to staging outside events, and how things have changed recently, including:

• New measures and legal issues for Estates dealing with outside events

• Considerations for landowners, event organisers, and other stakeholders involved

• Popular queries regarding how Covid-19 has affected the industry

• Important aspects for people involved with Estates to consider going forward.

To listen to their podcast click here.

Drop in demand for Welsh wool
The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a "disastrous" fall in demand for the fleeces of mountain sheep, according to British Wool. Hill-dwelling sheep produce a coarser fleece, ideal for use in carpets. With the closure of large hotels and cruise liners, there has not been the same need to routinely invest in new carpets. As a result, the price paid for fleeces had collapsed. Wyn Evans, NFU Cymru livestock board chair, said "I've had a cheque this year for around £60. That's for around 320 sheep, it's nothing."

Mr Evans has not lost hope however. In a letter to the Minister for Housing and Local Government, Julie James, he has called on Welsh Government to support Welsh farmers by specifying wool-rich carpets and other interior fabrics in all government and local authority buildings. The letter also calls for wool insulation to be used as part of insulation grant schemes on existing properties and new builds in Wales. In the letter, Mr Evans says these measures would be “an economic and environmental win.”

POLICY

Environmental Land Management scheme : A familiar disappointment
With the recent announcement of the scrapping of greening requirements, many an environmentalist would have looked to the upcoming Environmental Land Management scheme (ELM) for an enhanced and effective replacement. The government promised a scheme that would “improve the health of our environment, on a far greater scale than achieved under the CAP”. Recently shared documents may dash those hopes however, suggesting that ELM will bear “more than a passing resemblance” to old agri-environment schemes.

The documents suggest farmers will not be paid for the value of the environmental services they provide. Instead, they will only receive compensation for income foregone and costs. Whilst arguably making it much easier to administer, this approach undermines the value of the services provided from land and leaves the overall budget for the post-CAP scheme very much open to debate. Direct payments will also be wound down rapidly, with farmers anticipated to lose half of the value of their BPS claims by 2024. In a significant deviation from earlier visions of the scheme, farmers will only be paid for actions and not outcomes. Actions that may be paid for appear numerous, and the latest spreadsheet seen indicated 1,261 proposed actions that ELM might cover. Significant gaps still persist in multiple areas such as the management and governance of commons, supporting native breeds and conserving the cultural heritage of farming systems.

Environment Bill: Building back greener
Despite releasing an update to the Environment Bill, the government appears to have revealed relatively little. Defra has confirmed that it is developing time-bound, numerical targets aimed at tackling an array of environmental issues. At least one “strong and meaningful” target will be introduced for each of the four priority areas for the Bill: biodiversity, air quality, water and waste. Those goals should be set in statute by the end of October 2022. All targets will be deadlined for the mid-to-late 2030s and will be backed up with interim targets that will not be legally binding. Environment Secretary George Eustice said the targets will be a “driving force” behind the Conservative Party’s overarching commitment to leave Britain’s nature in a better state. But only a small fraction of the Treasury’s £160 billion package has been directly earmarked for low-carbon activities, raising questions about the sincerity of Boris Johnson’s commitment to build back greener.

The National Trust welcomed the intention to set legally binding targets for climate change but said the same was needed to address the wider decline in species and the environment. Rosie Hails, Director of Nature and Science at the National Trust said “talk of exploring this and potential for that won’t be good enough” and added “these targets will fail without strong environmental principles enshrined in law”. CLA President Mark Bridgeman said “the timeline of new targets being brought forward to 2022 is certainly ambitious, yet achievable.”

Both Ms Hails and Mr Bridgeman expressed concern about the siloed approach that the government appears to be taking to the environment. Ms Hails pointed to plans to reform the planning system, saying “the targets should also be supported, rather than undermined by any proposed changes to the planning system”. Mr Bridgeman expressed concerns that the phasing out of BPS and delays in implementing the new ELM scheme would leave farmers out of pocket. He said “for progress to be made, the government must work closely with the private sector to ensure the necessary resources and enabling policies are put in place.”

ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL CAPITAL

Renewables and recovery
Analysis by the National Infrastructure Commission suggests that 65% of Britain’s electricity could be delivered by renewables by 2030. This figure does not include hydrogen and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, which could create additional renewable energy capacity. The Commission had previously recommended the delivery of 50% renewables but believes the additional capacity could be delivered with “no material change in cost”. Today’s electricity system currently sits at around 40% renewables. In the report, the Commission advocates a market-led economic recovery from Covid-19 within the power sector to maximise the economic benefits of the low carbon transition. Strong government leadership is needed to “bring a new wave of technologies forward” to build a “flexible electricity system” with storage technology, flexible demand, efficient interconnectors and other innovations.

The modelling considers systems with 60, 80 and 90% renewable penetrations in 2050, but all with 65% of generation in 2030 coming from renewables. In all the Commission’s scenarios electricity demand will increase significantly from today’s level as sectors switch from fossil fuels to electricity. Therefore, the proportion of generation that renewables make up in 2030 can drop by 2050 without retiring any renewable capacity and therefore a scenario which has 65% renewables in 2030 can lead to a system with 60% renewables in 2050. Low carbon capacity would have to be brought online to meet additional demand between 2030 and 2050. For more information on renewable energy, contact Nick Green.

One innovation to aid the transition to a renewables-dominated energy mix could have recently been discovered in the UK. Using a crystal first discovered more than 200 years ago, Oxford PV believes they have made a solar panel that could generate almost a third more electricity than existing technology. By coating a traditional solar power cell with a thin layer of perovskite crystal, the solar panel is able to absorb different parts of the solar spectrum than traditional silicon panels. Typically a silicon solar cell is able to convert up to about 22% of the available solar energy into electricity. The new technology has already reached a new world record of 27.3%. What is more, Oxford PV believes it could be manufacturing the world’s most efficient solar panels by the end of the year and making them available to the public within 12 months. The discovery is being hailed as the first major step-change in solar power since the technology emerged in the 1950s.

England’s nature recovery pilots
Five local authorities have been selected to help kick-start nature recovery on a countrywide scale. Cornwall, Buckinghamshire, Greater Manchester, Northumberland and Cumbria local authorities will receive a share of £1 million of funding to set up ‘Local Nature Recovery Strategies’ (LNRS) pilot studies. These pilots will map the most valuable sites and habitats for wildlife in their area and identify where nature can be restored. Local authorities will set out their local priorities for restoring and linking habitats together, as well as agree the best places to help nature recover. The LNRS will underpin the new Nature Recovery Network set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan and the Environment Bill will require all areas in England to establish LNRS in the future.

Incentives for tree planting
The third Woodland Carbon Guarantee auction is now open for applications. £10 million will be made available from the scheme’s £50 million pot to incentivise the creation of new woodland to tackle climate change. Following an online auction process, successful bidders will be offered the option to sell woodland carbon in the form of Woodland Carbon Units. At the closure of the second auction in June, 27 contracts were offered by the Forestry Commission to stimulate the creation of 1,517 hectares of new woodland. The average price of bids accepted in the second auction was £19.71 per woodland carbon unit.

The Forestry Industry Recovery Scheme is open to applications from enterprises involved in the sustainable harvesting of trees or the growing of trees for planting in Wales. £1.55 million will be made available through the scheme which forms part of the National Forest Programme. Eligible projects will be able to access a maximum single grant of €200,000. The scheme is open for applications until 18 October 2020. Support will also be available for:

• Ground preparation equipment

• Equipment for tree safety works for trees affected by Ash Dieback

• Equipment that aids the harvesting of timber in a sustainable manner

Funding for green whisky
Applications are open for a £10 million government fund designed to help distilleries switch to low carbon fuels such as hydrogen and biomass. The Green Distilleries Competition aims to help distilleries cut emissions by almost one million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year in total, the equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road. The funding is supported by the £505 million BEIS Energy Innovation Portfolio which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of clean energy technologies. It has been welcomed by trade bodies in both Scotland and Northern Ireland, home to the vast majority of the industry, which grew by 20% in 2019. A Hydrogen Advisory Council will also be set up to help other industries follow in the path to be forged by distilleries.

PROPERTY & DEVELOPMENT

Will we see an eviction surge?
Independent polling for the National Residential Landlords Association has found that 87% of private tenants have paid their rent as normal throughout the pandemic, but an additional eight% have agreed a reduced rent, a rent-free period or made some other agreement. The survey has allayed fears of mass evictions in the wake of the global pandemic. Less than a third of all those with arrears (2% of the entire survey sample) have been served with a possession notice. A separate survey indicates that 55% of landlords who have granted at least one tenant a deferred rent or rent free period plan to absorb the losses from their own savings.

These figures came ahead of new rules being introduced from 24 August which will mean courts can adjourn possession cases where landlords have failed to adequately explain the impact that the pandemic might have had on their tenants before seeking possession. The National Residential Landlords Association is calling for government-guaranteed loans to help tenants who are in arrears because of the pandemic. Ahead of the end of the furlough scheme, the NRLA argues that such loans should be provided interest free and ring-fenced to cover rent payments and give tenants security. In England the government has now extended the ban on evictions for a further four weeks and announced that a 6 month notice period will apply once evictions become possible. The longer notice period will remain in place until at least 31 March 2021.

OTHER RURAL NEWS

And finally…
Attack of the ponies
Picture this. It is a warm, sunny weekend in the New Forest and you stumble upon a quaint shop. The owner tells you that the building used to be part of a First World War airfield. You nod politely, look around and even buy lunch there. But as you step outside, you are set upon my hungry ponies craving your crisps and sandwich. Not the stuff of a Hollywood blockbuster perhaps but the New Forest Verderers think it could become reality if plans submitted to the New Forest National Park Authority are approved. They are concerned that “interaction between shop customers and the ponies is potentially fraught with danger”. But the proposal, part of a scheme to turn the village hall into a community hub, has sparked widespread support in the East Boldre area. In a letter to the national park authority the parish council said "this is an exemplary planning application which will safeguard the future of the hall.”