Get paid to beautify land, Gove tells farmers

FARMERS will be paid for delivering benefits for nature and the countryside after Brexit instead of receiving subsidies for the amount of land they farm, Michael Gove has indicated.

Under the Europe-wide Common Agricultural Policy UK farmers receive around £3billion a year in subsidies, mostly linked to the amount of land they farm.

The Government has pledged to maintain levels of funding up to 2022, but Mr Gove said ministers could only go on “generously supporting farmers” in the face of other demands on spending if the environmental benefits were clear. In his first major speech as Environment Secretary, Mr Gove said reform of the system was needed, with payments for woodland creation, habitat protection, caring for treasured landscapes and higher animal welfare.

Mr Gove said: “The Common Agricultural Policy rewards size of landholding ahead of good environmental practice, all too often puts resources in the hands of the already wealthy rather than into the common good of our shared natural environment, and encourages patterns of land use which are wasteful of natural resources.”

He said the UK should take the opportunity presented by leaving the EU to reward farmers for environmental protection. Environmentalists want to see reform of the system to boost nature and protect wildlife. Investigations by Greenpeace’s Energydesk have revealed that one in five of the biggest recipients of European farming subsidies in Britain are billionaires and millionaires on the Sunday Times Rich List.

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents 30,000 landowners, farmers and rural businesses, has backed a move away from subsidies based purely on land size.

As the UK leaves the EU, the subsidy regime should be replaced with “land management contracts” – business contracts to manage land in ways that deliver public benefits, the CLA said.