Government Cuts Red Tape for Farmers 2021
The government have announced plans to reduce administration for farmers during 2021, by simplifying the Basic Payment Scheme and removing greening requirements – it is hoped that this will assist farmers with the transition to the new Environmental Land Management scheme.
Greening, which was shown to have had little environmental benefit, will no longer be required. However, overall payments will not be affected by these changes as money will be added to farmer’s entitlements under the Basic Payment Scheme. BPS will be phased out gradually over a seven year transition period with payments reducing in each year – this will be replaced with the new Environmental Land Management Scheme in 2024. Further support is expected to be available to assist farmers with moving over to the new scheme, which aims to provide public goods such as flood mitigation, tree planting and creating wildlife habitats.
The Countryside Stewardship Scheme will continue to be available until the new scheme is introduced, and further plans will be announced by the government in Autumn 2020.
Written by: G. Reed/August 2020