PRESS RELEASE : Statement on the Government’s conclusion of a review into ELMS [December 2022]
The press release issued by the National Trust on 2 December 2022.
Harry Bowell, Director of Land and Nature, responds to the Secretary of State’s speech about ELMS, the environmental payment scheme for farmers in England, at yesterday’s CLA Business Conference:
“The Government has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring food, farming and nature together in harmony, and stop treating nature as a bolt-on.
“A return to Countryside Stewardship, where farmers are paid to look after the environment as a supplement to their core business interests, with little tailoring to local needs, risks a clunky retrofitting of previous policies rather than securing the world-leading overhaul that farmers were promised.
“The Government mustn’t abandon the ambitious goals of its Local Nature Recovery scheme, which farmers have poured hours into making a success, and which puts a healthy local environment at the heart of farming. As well as offering a lifeline to our fast declining species, it would see farmers rewarded for making space for nature, building resilience to climate change, and improving air and water quality, while opening up opportunities for private finance.
“Now is the time for doubling down, not watering down.”
