Future English RDP November 4, 2013 12:00 am Following on from the CAP consultation launched on the 31st October (see previous article), Natural England has released the fourth edition of its Scheme Development Bulletin. This gives more details of the new Rural Development schemes from 2015 and transitional arrangements for 2014. Transitional Arrangements Under Environmental Stewardship, ELS, Organic ELS and Uplands ELS are now closed to new 2013 applications. Any forms received before 1st September are being processed. Predictably there was a surge in applications leading up to the deadline. Those who have not applied or have agreements coming to an end during 2014/15 will only have limited opportunity to enter a scheme during the 2014 transitional year. Although the necessary ‘bridging’ legislation has not yet been finalised in Brussels, Natural England (NE) is working on the following basis for next year, as previously set out in our July Bulletin; Around £26 million will be available for HLS agreements, this money is allocated for eligible expiring classic schemes (ESA and CSS), SSSI’s and other high priority areas. Just £4 million will be available for ELS; renewals and new agreements will need to meet one of the criteria below: Underpin a HLS In the uplands Land coming out of a ‘classic’ scheme which does not meet the HLS criteria Organic producers In all cases, Natural England will be contacting those with expiring agreements over the next few months. A full timetable can be found in the Bulletin itself, see – http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/scheme-development-bulletin-october-2013_tcm6-36880.pdf. Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) will continue to deliver the programme of training and advice during 2014/15. Whilst funding is still to be confirmed, it has previously been proposed that £14m will be available for the entire scheme. The CSF Capital Grant Scheme will also continue, however funding is likely to be offered in target areas rather than across whole catchments. NELMS A summary of the New Environmental Land Management Scheme (NELMS) is included in both the Bulletin and the CAP reform Consultation. This doesn’t add too much to what has already been outlined and we reported in our August article. In summary, the new scheme will combine elements of Environmental Stewardship, woodland grants, and possibly Catchment Sensitive Farming. There will be no separate programmes for the uplands or organic producers, but suitable options will be made available under the single scheme. NELMS will have three main types of agreement; Site specific agreements (much like the current HLS – agreements between NE and individual land occupiers on areas deemed to have the highest environmental potential) Area specific / landscape-scale agreements (the big new idea within NELMS – groups of farmers working together to deliver environmental management over a wide area) A capital grants scheme open to all farmers (funding for a wide list of capital environmental works such as hedge planting – applications will be in rounds with some element of competition) According to a ‘timeline’ showing the development of the new scheme (http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/cap-timeline-oct-2013_tcm6-36879.pdf) the aim is to have the literature available for the start of 2015. However, the first agreements under NELMS will not start until the 1st January 2016 as all new contracts are being aligned with a single annual start date at the beginning of each year. NELMS is still a work-in-progress (not least its name, which will change before the formal launch). A key element still to be decided is the targeting criteria. This will decide who might be eligible for a site-specific agreement, and who will fall into the ‘white-space’ where it will be very difficult to get into the scheme. In the CAP consultation DEFRA outlines that the area of land covered by an agri-environmental agreement will fall from the current 70%+ of England, to ’35-40%’ in the future. In our view even this might prove optimistic in light of reduced RDP funding. The precise working of the landscape-scale strand will also need to be refined. Although attractive in principle to policymakers getting it to work in practice may be rather more difficult.
