Farming and Countryside Programme
This month, Natural England published its annual report summarising projects of the Agri-Environment Scheme Monitoring & Evaluation Programme. In this guest post, Natural England’s Usha Waygood, Senior Officer in the Evidence Directorate, highlights some of the team’s findings from the report.
In April, we published our response to the Independent review of protected site management on Dartmoor. We agreed with the recommendation to create a land use management group. I'm pleased to say that the position of chair has just been advertised. In this post, I'll share a short summary and provide links to learn more.
In a post published last month, I said I’d let you know when Parliament passed the new hedgerow regulations. Today, I’m doing just that.
In December, we shared details of a new capital grant to support smaller abattoirs in England, offered through the Smaller Abattoir Fund . To recognise the cash flow challenges that many smaller abattoirs face, we’re increasing this support. We’ve raised the intervention rate from 40% to 50% and we’ve increased the maximum grant amount from £60,000 …
We want to make it easier for farmers to strengthen their businesses. To that end, several changes to permitted development rights are coming into effect from 21 May.
From today, small groups of farmers in England can apply for a Local Resource Option (LRO) screening study. An LRO is a water resources scheme that improves the resilience or supply of water in a local area. LRO screening studies are one way farmers and growers can better understand their options to improve the supply or resilience …
We are pleased to tell you that legislation to protect hedgerows has today been laid in both Houses of Parliament. If approved by Parliament, the Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024 will put baseline hedgerow management practices into law, providing a consistent approach across all people operating on agricultural land.
Groups of farmers in England can now apply for a grant to improve freshwater habitats. Through the new Water Restoration Fund, local groups can apply for funding to bolster their capacity and capabilities for delivery of on-the-ground projects which improve the water environment. In this post, we'll explain how the fund works.
We want farmers and land managers in England to confidently and securely access payments from both the public and private sector for the environmental benefits and food they produce. In this post, we'll give a summary of our work and the initiatives supporting our ambitions in this space.
On Thursday 29 February, we held a webinar for arable and field horticulture growers in England. In this post, I’ll share the recording and summarise the themes that emerged in the questions and I’ll set out the best ways for you to get answers.
