National Trust’s rewilding plans push farmers out

The clearing of tenanted land has been likened to a reenactment of the Highland Clearances

THE National Trust has been accused of reenacting the Highland Clearances as it takes land off farmers to boost rewilding.

New environmental subsidies have prompted the Trust to reallocate land long used for farming to plant trees or leave to nature, farmers say.

Kevin Bateman, a land agent based in Devon, said he knows of several cases in the region where the charity has taken back land from tenant farmers and taken it out of food production.

He compared it to a “re-enactment of the Highland Clearances”, adding that the charity was taking advantage of new environmental schemes which pay land managers for measures such as tree planting and rewilding.

New policies brought in after the UK left the EU are expected to replace European subsidies, which were based on the size of the land farmed, with rewards for environmentally-friendly management. But there is concern that landlords are looking to take advantage of this by taking land out of the hands of farmers and managing it themselves.

Farmer Patrick Greed, 61, has taken an incentive from the Trust to end his tenancy. His children, who are in their 30s, are not interested in taking it on so he is effectively retiring early. He said the tenancy for 150 acres of his land, which had been used as grazing for beef cattle, was not renewed last year and has been planted with trees.

The main holding, on a different type of tenancy and used for growing cereals and vegetables, is now going to be taken back by the Trust as well.

“I don’t mind leaving the farm if it was going to be run as a farm,” he said. “But you’ve got productive land that they are potentially going to use to put in trees. It doesn’t feel right.”

Figures produced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) show the area of land in England held under the newer form of tenancy, which had been growing, fell by 3 per cent between 2019 and 2020.

Richard Benyon, the minister for rural affairs at Defra, called on the National Trust to help its tenant farmers access environmental funding so they can continue farming the land.

“When people’s families have farmed these landscapes for generations, bringing that to an end can be deeply traumatic,” he said. “I hope the National Trust is doing everything it can to support farmers in continuing to farm their land.”

George Dunn, chief executive of the Tenant Farmers Association, said: “We are involved in a range of other cases where landlords are attempting to take land back for activities that might include tree planting and rewilding.”

The group is pushing for landlords to be excluded from access to public funding for tree planting and rewilding if they have taken land back from a farmer.

A spokesman for the National Trust said: “We want to support our tenant farmers to put nature at the heart of managing our land while still running successful businesses producing great food.”

‘You’ve got productive land that they are potentially going to use to put in trees. It doesn’t feel right’