Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to review the (a) financial and (b) other support available for upland farmers in Areas of Outstanding National Beauty.

We have a range of offers available to upland farmers within Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). At the moment, farmers can access Countryside Stewardship which offers multi-year payments to maintain and enhance on farm environments. Currently, 75% of priority habitat that is above the moorland line is within such an environmental agreement.

We also have a range of grant offers to upland farms so that they can invest in their productivity. More offers will open shortly, such as those for slurry infrastructure. For farmers in Protected Landscapes in England (including AONBs), the Farming in Protected Landscape programme offers funding to support farm businesses to deliver projects across the four themes of the programme; climate, nature, people and place.

We have worked regularly with a group of stakeholders, including farmers and practitioners, to develop a specific Moorland Standard within the Sustainable Farming Incentive Scheme. This standard has the sole focus and eligibility on land mapped above the moorland line in the uplands of England. It forms an integral part of the offer for those farming in the uplands alongside the other elements of the scheme they may also be eligible for. This is the first offer that we will build more onto over time.