All farming subsidies should be abolished post-Brexit, with landowners instead incentivised to farm in a more environmentally-sustainable way, a Conservative think-tank has proposed.
The report, A Greener, More Pleasant Land, from Bright Blue, sets out a vision for a new market-based commissioning scheme for rural payments after Brexit, which would replace the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and fund ecosystem services, such as woodland creation, restoration of peatlands and removing invasive plant species.
It proposes the elimination of all production subsidies in agriculture, and ensures instead that farmers have three forms of income available to them: the first from the new market-based commissioning scheme for rural payments, the second from a form of means-tested livelihood support, and the third from agricultural produce or other monetisable services sold at market prices without production subsidies. These sources of income are not mutually exclusive, Bright Blue stressed.
Under the scheme, ‘suppliers’ would bid to supply ecosystem services to paying ‘beneficiaries’ in specific catchments via online marketplaces. Suppliers would include farmers, landowners and land managers. Beneficiaries would include the general public (represented by central, devolved and local government), private interests (such as water companies, other land managers and insurers) and other groups (such as conservation NGOs, civil society groups, land trusts, philanthropists, local communities via town and village halls, or crowd funders). Contracts for supplying ecosystem services would pay quarterly based on results, potentially with incentives to encourage performance.
The report advocates a phased approach to implementation with a long-term commitment of central government funding of at least £3.1 billion a year on rural payments until 2026-27. Only after new arrangements have been established and are working effectively should levels of public funding be reviewed, it stresses.
MP Zac Goldsmith, a member of the Environment Audit Committee, said: “The government is transferring existing EU environmental regulations into UK law, and is committed to filling the governance gap that will open up as we leave the EU. That is good news, but it is only the beginning of what we can and must do to ensure we take full advantage of the opportunities presented by leaving the EU.
“And the biggest opportunity by far is the ability we now have to redesign the way we subsidise rural activity via whatever regime replaces the Common Agriculture Policy, something environmentalists have long dreamed of being able to do. Instead of simply paying people for owning land, no matter what they do to it, we can finally tailor that support to reward good stewardship of the land to boost biodiversity, minimise floods, improve water quality and access, and deliver food security.”
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