Defra to fund schemes to boost water quality

Restoring streams and rivers to improve water quality, biodiversity and adaptation to climate change has been prioritised as part of a government scheme launched under the Agriculture Act.

Farmers and landowners will be incentivised to take actions that benefit the environment including peatland restoration, wetland creation, habitat restoration, and afforestation through two initiatives to promote nature recovery.

The Landscape Recovery and Local Nature Recovery schemes are intended to restore England’s threatened native species and will run alongside the Sustainable Farming Incentive launched by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Defra said the pilots for the Landscape Recovery scheme are expected to create at least 20,000 hectares of habitats, rewetted peat, afforestation and wilder landscapes. It will launch 15 pilots to begin over the next two years. Environment secretary George Eustice described the scheme as being about “much more fundamental land-use change” than the Local Nature Recovery, which replaces current stewardship funding.

He said: “We will never deliver our targets for the environment unless we see some changes across the farm landscape. The way that we manage our soils is inextricably linked to the quality of our watercourses, which has a direct impact on many of our protected sites.”

The projects are designed to deliver annual carbon savings of at least 25 to 50 kilotonnes.

Defra anticipates projects will be able to secure private investment to complement the public funding when schemes move beyond the development stage. Defra said water companies can co-fund nature-based solutions as part of the schemes that would help meet their statutory water quality obligations as well as delivering broader environmental benefits.

United Utilities, which has pioneered catchment management approaches over the past 15 years, was involved with a pilot of the Local Nature Recovery scheme in Greater Manchester and Cumbria.

UU’s strategic catchment planning manager, Sarah Jenner, said being involved in the pilot allowed the company to influence the integration of the needs of the water environment with wider nature recovery to ensure that multiple benefits are delivered. She said it is critical for funding from government schemes to be blended with investment from water companies to deliver maximum benefits.

“We have an interest in investing in the landscape to safeguard water resources but we cannot deliver all of the potential benefits from catchments alone so it will be key that government funding through schemes like Environmental Land Management (ELMs) aligns to these strategies to support land managers in delivering long term nature recovery goals which will benefit sustainable catchment management and long term resilience of water resources.

She said the company is supportive of the measures laid out in the Agriculture Act and plans to maximise the reach of the government’s financial support with its own investment programmes to deliver more for the people and environment in its region.

“In order to make a real difference in the landscape and ensure that these strategies are effectively delivered, it is critical that public and private funding can be blended to deliver the identified actions at the scale required,” Jenner explained.

She added that the company wanted to see continued support for local, trusted advisers to work with farmers and landowners to encourage the take up of ELMS.

The company will continue its Sustainable Catchment Management Programme and more recently its Catchment Systems Thinking Approach. However, Jenner said the breadth of stakeholders involved requires all organisations to work more collaboratively to gain the maximum reach and ultimately benefit for nature and people.

“We do not underestimate the shift required in all of our thinking to manage land in a way that is about restoring and unlocking the benefits of natural processes,” she said. “For example we expect to see more measures to improve nature recovery and connectedness such as river restoration, hedgerow planting, ponds and wetlands. Not only is this good for nature and water quality but it will create a more sustainable basis for farm businesses too.”