Landowners have told the environment secretary they are “running out of patience” with the Conservative government after 12 years of the rural economy being “stifled” and delays to nature-friendly farming payment schemes.
At a conference organised by the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), the largest rural landowner group in the country, Thérèse Coffey announced that the review into the new land payments schemes had concluded, but admitted that farmers and other land managers would remain in the dark with regards to detail on payment and standards until next year.
Farmers have been in limbo for six years about how they will be subsidised by government after it was announced that England would diverge from the EU’s common agricultural policy and have its own nature-friendly farming payments scheme.
During her first public outing since becoming environment secretary, Coffey announced the schemes would stay largely as planned, split into three tiers with an emphasis on environmental protection. Her predecessor, Ranil Jayawardena, had planned to rethink them to emphasise economic growth instead.
Mark Tufnell, the chair of the CLA, told the conference the delays were “unacceptable”, comparing the lack of clarity on payment rates to buying “something from the shop without knowing the price”.
Coffey said she had been doing a “deep dive” into issues in Defra, taking part in “rigorous approaches on how to get the best bang for our buck” when it comes to the schemes. Because of this, farmers would not get clarity on the schemes or funding split until “hopefully” early next year, she said.
Tufnell said “landowners are running out of patience” after Coffey’s announcement. The payments scheme was “at risk of disappearing for ever”, he added, because landowners would not sign up.
He also criticised the past 12 years of Conservative government, telling the audience rural policy had not improved, and in “some cases has worsened” with rural businesses being “stifled”.
He said planning regimes seemed “designed to hold the rural economy back”, that a lack of affordable housing drove away young people, and that infrastructure prevented many from “operating in the 21st century”.
Tufnell said: “There is nothing Conservative about holding rural businesses back. There is nothing Conservative about letting rural communities fail.”
Coffey said the Conservatives had improved rural broadband and kept agricultural land out of inheritance tax schemes.
She signalled that the government would be targeting agricultural polluters after her predecessor had promised to “cut red tape” and “leave farmers alone”, telling the conference: “Sadly, there will still be the polluters who let the side down. Frankly, if they don’t accept our support, we will tackle them head on.”
Farmers and policy experts were unimpressed by her announcement of more delays. Martin Lines, UK chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, said: “Nature protection and restoration need to happen now if we are serious about our climate ambitions. No doubt Thérèse Coffey will stand in front of Cop15 next week and speak of the importance of biodiversity, but so far, I see no action to back that up. Rather than using the review period to develop a clear, coherent and ambitious plan for environmental land management, Defra has chosen to kick the can further down the road.”