A recent article in the Farmers Guardian notes that Defra’s plans to ‘move money uphill’, has generated robust debate between upland farmer and their lowland counterparts.
In its response to the consultation, the NFU said there was a ‘widespread view’ among its members that a proposed 82 per cent increase in the moorland rate was ‘disproportionately large’. The union stressed it is ‘not opposed to moving more of the pillar one budget’ up the hill and that it agrees with the proposal to merge the lowland and SDA non-moorland rates.
But hill farmers are saying that the 82 per cent increase for moorland needed to put in context as it represented an increase what was from a small base - just over £45/ha, far below rates paid in the other two regions. The shift in funds would only cost lowland farmers around €1.60/ha. Furthermore another justification for the increases in basic payment is to offset loss of the Uplands Entry Level Stewardship Scheme (UELS), which currently pays £62 per ha per year on SDA and £23/ha on moorland. UELS was the continuation of various forms of uplands support from the old Hill Livestock Compensation Allowance and then the Hill Farm Allowance.
The Foundation for Common Land has written a letter to the Farmers Guardian supporting the active grazing of moorland commons to deliver public goods. The Foundation believes that "Defra, and all with an interest in our countryside, must back the increase in moorland payments so hill farmers can stay in business and continue to maintain England’s greatest assets at excellent value for the taxpayer’s investment".
You can download the letter here
| Attachment | Size |
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 fcl_letter_to_fg_10-12-13.pdf | 1.15 MB |
