The passing of the Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill in Scotland is an important step forward, but there is still some way to go before it is clear how and to what extent farmers will be supported. Similar to plans in England, Scotland’s future schemes are due to encourage greener farming practices. However, in Denmark, the government is using less carrots and more sticks, having announced Europe's first agricultural carbon tax.

Pledges to reform the rented homes sector were prominent in the parties' election manifestos. However, industry stakeholders have argued the biggest issue is the imbalance in supply and demand and action is needed to boost the supply of rental homes.

FOOD & FARMING

Carbon emissions tax for farmers in Denmark
The Danish government is going to introduce the first agricultural carbon tax in Europe. From 2030, it will require farmers in Denmark to pay 120 Danish Krone (approximately £13) per tonne of CO2 equivalent emitted, with the amount increasing to 300 Danish Krone by 2035 (approximately £34). The tax is expected to reduce Denmark’s emissions by approximately 1.8 million metric tonnes in 2030 and forms part of the country's plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from 1990 levels by 2030. The proceeds raised by the tax will be returned to the agricultural industry and channelled into green initiatives to support the sector’s transition to sustainable practices. Denmark’s Tax Minister Jeppe Bruus said in a statement that he hoped the initiative would inspire other countries to implement similar measures.

The tax in Denmark has broad political support and has been negotiated with farming, food and environmental stakeholders. The taxation mechanism should be a step towards low-emission agriculture in Denmark, but it could have some drawbacks. Domestic producers could be disadvantaged unless a similar tariff is imposed on imports. Also, financially penalising producers may be less effective than a ‘carrot and stick’ approach that actively incentivises transitions. Currently, the government in England is taking the latter approach to encourage more sustainable farming practices.

Health and welfare funding launched
Additional funding has been announced to target endemic livestock diseases in England. The annual health and welfare review payment will now support diagnostic testing for Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome in pigs and Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) in beef cattle. Health improvement packages will also be available for sheep; these will be flock-specific to ensure the most benefit. The rates per farm are as follows:

• £215 for beef cattle with no BVD
• £837 for beef cattle where BVD is present in the herd
• £639 for sheep
• £923 for pigs

Farmers can also access funded support to improve on-farm biosecurity and reduce disease incidence following their diagnostic results. Contact Georgina Sweeting in our Food and Farming team for more information about the annual health and welfare review.

Further legislation has spotlighted BVD: in Wales, the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Order will came into effect on 1 July. Farmers will be required to screen their herds for BVD and permanently isolate persistently infected animals from the rest of the herd. In addition to the obvious animal health and welfare benefits reducing BVD occurrences can significantly lower carbon emissions. It's estimated that eliminating BVD from just 40 cattle could reduce a farm's carbon footprint by around 70,200 kg of CO2e annually.

Carbon accounting tools harmonised
Three farm carbon calculators have joined forces to harmonise their greenhouse gas emissions calculation methodologies and outputs. Agrecalc Limited, Cool Farm Alliance, and Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit have signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to work together to support UK agriculture with the most accurate and up-to-date tools possible. This alliance follows the report "Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture" produced by Defra and ADAS earlier this year, which called for consistent calculator outputs. All three calculators will remain commercially independent but will share common data sources. This development marks a step in the right direction for the accuracy of farm carbon calculators and seeks to create a minimum required standard for carbon calculators across the industry.

POLICY

Scotland: Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill unanimously passes
As usual, the recent Royal Highland Show was a focal point for discussion and debate around policy for Scotland’s rural economy. However, this year, the focus was not on announcements at the show but on the passage of the Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill in the days before the show. The Bill is an important step forward in Scotland’s transition away from the basic payment scheme as it aims to ensure the Scottish Government can help farmers and crofters produce more food sustainably and support their essential role in climate mitigation and nature restoration. However, there is still some way to go before it is clear what that support may look like on the ground.

Many impactful plans and legislation for the rural sector are on the agenda in Scotland, including the Climate Change Plan, Land Reform Bill and the Housing (Scotland) Bill. See our latest Scottish Rural Policy Update briefing note for a summary of their progress.

Rural crime in the spotlight
The election campaign has thrust issues with crime in rural areas into the spotlight. A report by the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) found a significant disparity in funding for different rural crime teams across the UK. For example, Cambridgeshire’s rural crime team has a budget of £961,830, whereas Leicestershire’s team receives £1,250, and Northamptonshire has no internal funding. The report also found some teams were chronically under-resourced. For something as simple as torches, Cleveland, Derbyshire and Lancashire reported zero in their inventory, while South Yorkshire had two between 85 officers. As for personnel, many forces, such as Durham, Nottinghamshire, Norfolk, and West Yorkshire, have no dedicated officers. South Yorkshire has the largest number of rural officers (92), representing 3% of the entire force. The lack of resources is translating into a poor response to rural crime. The CLA report found the average response time for rural communities in Bedfordshire was 27 minutes. In Leicestershire, the average response time is 16 minutes in urban areas, but that lengthens to 22 minutes for rural areas.

ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL CAPITAL

2.2 million seeds for Scottish rewilding
The Tree Seed Collection Project has gathered seeds from rare tree species throughout Scotland. The project began in August 2023 and has collected 2.2 million seeds. These seeds will allow 1.5 million trees to be planted as part of rewilding efforts in Scotland. Some of the seeds will help restore Scotland's temperate rainforest. These rainforests are thought to be more threatened than tropical rainforests and are home to some of the world's rarest species of moss and lichen, as well as red squirrels and the threatened chequered skipper butterfly. Only 30,000 hectares of temperate rainforest remain in Scotland, an area only slightly larger than Edinburgh. These rainforests are scattered across the country in small plots, most of which are no bigger than 25 hectares.

Scotland: Record tree planting
Nearly three-quarters of all new woodland throughout the UK was established in Scotland last year, meaning Scotland has created the largest area of new woodland in 34 years. During 2023/4, 15,000 hectares of new woodland, or roughly 30 million trees, were created in Scotland. Farmers or small-scale landowners were responsible for around half of Scotland's 300 separate woodland creation projects last year. The year before, there had been a dip in the planting rate, leading to the introduction of a fleet of measures to reinvigorate planting activity. They seem to have worked, with an 80% increase in planting being recorded. However, woodland creation targets keep getting more ambitious, meaning more planting must be done next year to hit the 2024/25 target of 18,000 hectares.

Evidence of beavers on the River Stour
Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) has confirmed that a beaver has felled a tree alongside the River Stour near Gillingham. The Trust says it’s a clear sign beavers are present in the area, but they are unsure exactly where they are distributed and in what numbers. DWT introduced an adult male and adult female into a freshwater habitat in 2021 and said beaver kits had been spotted in 2022. The tree was felled in an area where Gillingham Action for Nature Group (Gang) had previously planted trees. It was one of those trees, a 13-year-old native black poplar, that had been felled.

Deer do not harm carbon storage
A study by the University of Oxford’s ecology lab has revealed that grazing herbivores do not hurt carbon storage, as was first assumed. Oxford researchers studied grazers reintroduced at the Knepp rewilding project. The team investigated the influence of these herbivores on tree growth and found herbivore browsing in rewilded landscapes does not reduce carbon storage. Instead, the scrubland trees left behind can store far more carbon in their roots than previously thought. It has been assumed the loss of trees in grazing areas could lead to increased air pollution, however, it appears the trees instead invest more in root growth, enhancing their carbon storage abilities.

PROPERTY & DEVELOPMENT

Planning permission for oil drilling site ruled unlawful
A recent Supreme Court decision has considered the relevance of greenhouse gas emissions in planning decisions related to oil drilling. The UK Supreme Court declared the planning permission for oil drilling at Horse Hill was unlawful. The case, fought by campaigner Sarah Finch on behalf of the Weald Action Group, was against Surrey County Council and Horse Hill Developments Ltd. The five-year battle centred on the correct interpretation of environmental impact assessment (EIA) regulations for commercial crude oil extraction and the inclusion of scope three emissions in the EIA. Scope three emissions are those from the subsequent use of the oil.

The Supreme Court ruled that assessing downstream greenhouse gas emissions is a legal requirement and must be assessed before granting planning permission for fossil fuel development. Planning permission for the four oil wells at Horse Hill has been revoked because of the Court’s decision, putting an end to a projected 20-year plan for crude oil extraction. This ruling has significant implications for the future of Britain’s oil and gas industry and could potentially jeopardise new fossil fuel developments in the UK.

Green energy projects failing to clear planning
In the past five years, two-thirds of UK renewable energy projects have failed to get through the planning process. Research by Cornwall Insight found 63% of such projects were either abandoned (14%), refused planning permission (36%), or an application was withdrawn (2%) or ultimately expired (11%) between 2018 and 2023. The problem is national, with no single region in Britain having a planning permission success rate of over 20%. Blame has partly been laid at the feet of speculative applications, where developers submit multiple applications across several sites but with the expectation that few will ultimately connect. These so-called ‘phantom’ projects have seen the queue for connections to the electricity grid grow so much that many connection dates now run into the 2030s.

Update to Scotland’s short-term lets licensing scheme
The amendments to the short-term let licensing scheme, which was introduced in 2022, will allow for the transfer of licences for short-term lets to a new owner in the event of a sale. Builders of new short-term lets will be able to apply for a provisional short-term letting licence before the completion of construction. Additionally, hosts will be permitted to apply for a maximum of three licence exemptions per year, allowing for up to six weeks per annum. These amendments provide improved flexibility for licence holders and aim to support tourism in Scotland, which contributes £4 billion annually to the economy.

BUSINESS & economy

Rental reform to be undermined by shortage of homes
A shortage of homes to rent could undermine any new plans to reform the rental sector. According to the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), plans laid out in many of the political party manifestos fail to address the rental sector's major issue. On average, 15 renters are chasing each available property, according to recent research. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has echoed the comments and research by Savills, indicates that up to one million additional homes will be required to accommodate growing rental demand, particularly from young families, across England and Wales.

Factors, including uncertainty over regulation and growing costs, drive the lack of supply. As such, the NRLA is calling for an adequate system to be brought in to replace section 21 repossessions. Research by Capital Economics suggests that scrapping the 3% stamp duty levy on the purchase of additional homes would see almost 900,000 new homes made available to the rental sector within the next decade. The research also suggests the loss in stamp duty income would be more than offset by revenue from increased income and corporation tax receipts.

Scotland: Natural capital-driven land sales subside
The latest Rural Land Market Insights Report from the Scottish Land Commission and Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) found that supply and demand noticeably decreased in Scotland's rural land market in 2023. The report also found a notable decline in overall land values affecting estates and marginal hill land. Prime arable land bucked the trend, with values here remaining steady. Their research pointed to macroeconomic factors fuelling the change, including high UK interest rates, elevated input costs and lower commodity prices. Uncertainty was also blamed, particularly around the land reform agenda, a new subsidy regime, environmental targets and natural capital market regulation.

OTHER RURAL NEWS

And finally… Sauna treats frog fungus
The green and golden bell frog was once abundant on the south-eastern coast of Australia, but numbers have now shrunk by 90%. A deadly fungal infection known as chytridiomycosis is chiefly to blame, having already wiped out nearly 100 species of frogs, toads and salamanders around the world. Yet a novel solution might be coming to the bell frog’s aid: a frog sauna. It has long been known that high temperatures limit fungal infections. Indeed, chytridiomycosis struggles to grow above 28°C.

Macquarie University in Sydney studied two groups of frogs infected with chytridiomycosis. The first group was provided with brick ‘saunas’ within an unshaded shelter where temperatures reached nearly 40°C. The second group was provided with the same ‘saunas’ in a shaded shelter where temperatures reached 35°C. The number of spores on the frogs in the warmer shelters was 100-fold lower than in the other group. As well as inhibiting fungal growth, the warmer temperature also seems to activate the frogs’ immune system, helping them fight the illness. Hopefully, the discoveries might help hundreds of similar species affected by the disease.

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