Farmers’ livelihoods are at risk from Government delays for support | Politics | News

Hill farmers’ livelihoods are at risk from delays to new Government support schemes, experts have warned.

These farmers are only receiving 8%, or £39million, of the government’s new farming support scheme, the Sustainable Farming Incentive, despite the uplands occupying around 15% of England’s area.

Tom Lancaster, land, food and farming analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said: “Hill farmers are often not rich and are less likely to be affected by changes to inheritance tax, but delays to new Government schemes could have an outsized negative impact on their livelihoods.

“The Countryside Stewardship higher-tier scheme, designed to support farmers to create and restore habitats like woodlands, which would help to reduce flood risk downstream, has been repeatedly delayed under previous governments. Any further delays will put hill farmers finances in jeopardy.”

Incomes from farming in the uplands are typically among the lowest of all farm sectors, with data for 2023/24 giving an average farm business income for hill farms of £23,500.

Delays to the higher tier scheme therefore present a particular risk to the incomes of hill farmers, and those in similarly economically marginal landscapes. 

Upland farmer Neil Heseltine, from Malham in North Yorkshire, said: “We’ve been waiting for years for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to provide us with the support we need to do more for nature and climate change on our farm. 

“We are ready, willing and able, but the support to do so just hasn’t been there yet. I don’t begrudge our lowland peers the funding they’re getting, I just want some of it to flow up the hill to allow us to do the same.

“If it doesn’t, climate and nature will suffer. And as the old subsidies are phased out, I don’t know what hill farmers will do if we can’t get into these more ambitious, higher-paying, higher-tier schemes we’ve long been promised. We’re at a critical point in the green farming transition, and this new Defra team need to put their money where their mouth is before it’s too late and ensure the schemes we were promised are available as soon as possible.”

Mr Lancaster said: “British people are concerned by the state of British nature and many hill farmers are keen to get on with the job of restoring it, locking up carbon emissions as they do. Government targets are unachievable without them.

“For the Treasury, these schemes provide the best value for money, and a quick start is essential to avoid the looming prospect of an underspend against this government’s commitment to farmers.”