Agriculture Bill could be ‘game-changing’ for catchment management

The incoming Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) could be “game-changing” for water companies in their approach to catchment management.

That’s according to Anglian’s head of public affairs Daniel Johns who told Utility Week that without greater clarity from government it runs the risk of not fulfilling its potential for the environment.

Following the UK’s departure from the European Union, the Agriculture Bill will replace the Common Agriculture Policy that has been followed since 1973. The bill sets out the national approach to farming and the legislative framework for the replacement agricultural support schemes – including the ELMS.

The idea of the ELMS – and the Agriculture Bill – is to use “public money for public goods” with farmers incentivised to manage their lands in ways that both deliver for food production and also much greater environmental gain.

Johns told Utility Week: “Anglian Water will be spending record sums improving the natural environment in AMP7.  Alongside this, we need the new ELM scheme to fulfil its potential and transform how farmers manage land for nature.  But key details remain unknown, and we are concerned that ELMS is becoming just another agri-environment scheme.”

The scheme involves a three-tier approach, with subsidies available for land users who meet the criteria of each tier over and above a regulatory base standard. However, these standards are not explicit.

The government currently has the power to withhold payments to farmers for the main subsidies if they are failing to meet cross compliance requirements for environmental standards. As this is withdrawn, clarity is required for farmers to know exactly what the rules are and how they can expect them to be enforced.

“We would like the government to confirm the environmental standards that every farm will need to meet, and to make sure that ELMS requires farmers to deliver a clear step up from this in order to access funding,” said Johns. “We also want to see a large proportion of ELMS funding reserved for the higher tiers of the scheme to properly fund local- and landscape-scale nature restoration projects that could be delivered in partnership with water companies.”

Water companies pay to clean up pollution in watercourses and the wider water environment. In agricultural regions, this is in part due to runoff from farmed land. ELMS could reduce the amount of end of pipe cleaning required in a natural way.

Johns explained that money could be better spent through a catchment-based approach, working with other stakeholders to pool resources and deliver investment more cost effectively for tax payers and water company customers.

“We can get much more environmental gain for less money,” Johns said, adding that the Agriculture Bill may not be living up to the vision set out in the 2018 Health and Harmony report.

The Health and Harmony Report was penned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) under Michael Gove’s leadership to set out a plan to transition from the Common Agriculture Policy in a way that promotes environmental enhancement.