Environmental Land Management Schemes: Common Land

(asked on 26th June 2023) - View Source

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

To ask His Majesty's Government to what extent commoners with grazing rights in perpetuity will benefit from the Environmental Land Management Schemes.


Answered by
Lord Benyon Portrait
Lord Benyon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 29th June 2023

We are designing the Environmental Land Management schemes so farmers on common land can take part in the schemes in a straightforward and positive way.

We have already designed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) so that eligible single entities can apply for an agreement on common land, as well as making an additional payment available to help with the costs of administering an agreement if there is a group of two or more people on the common.

Commoners will also be eligible for the annual SFI management payment, which will pay £20 per hectare for up to the first 50 hectares entered into the scheme, resulting in a payment of up to £1,000 per year.

Alongside SFI, there are multiple actions available in Countryside Stewardship that are applicable to commoners, as well as payment to support the administration of agreements involving shared grazing on common land. Common land is also eligible for entry into the Landscape Recovery scheme, and applications are currently being accepted for round two.

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