August 2024
19 days into the new government, the National Audit Office (NAO) published its third report reviewing value for money in England’s Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs). Whilst the challenging nature of the transition is acknowledged, the report identifies areas requiring improvement. Incoming ministers have said they intend to stay the course of the transition to a public goods approach but make improvements to schemes. This report is a timely stock-take of which improvements are most urgent.
Public money wasted
New analysis from the National Trust, RSPB and Wildlife Trusts shows the current UK farming budget must nearly double to £5.5-5.9bn each year to meet the needs of the transition. Although the Farming and Countryside Programme has been in underspend, every penny spent on things which deliver little or no environmental change increases costs on top of the required £5.9bn. That is why it is critical money is spent efficiently and where it has greatest impact. The NAO found that the estimated cost of doubling the SFI management fee will cost £27m next year, jumping to £92m for 2025-28. Reinvesting this would cover a significant proportion of the £34m per year needed to fund agricultural advice.
Ambitious schemes being crowded out
The report also suggests budgetary split between schemes is off-balance. Next year, 26% of the budget will be spent on the SFI, almost double the 14% spent on CS Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery. The NAO warns that more complex schemes are more expensive but deliver greater returns, but unconstrained spend in the SFI is quickly absorbing the funding they need.
This observation appears to be borne out by the rollout of SFI 2024 taking precedence over opening CS Higher Tier, with farmers waiting for Defra to confirm whether it will meet its commitment to open a new round this year. With the SFI offering less for upland farmers, scaling up CS Higher Tier to 4,000 new applications annually and putting those with old HLS agreements at the front of the queue is mission critical for a just transition.
Missing species abundance targets
NAO notes that the ‘test and learn’ approach could erode trust and limit scheme uptake. A roadmap is needed to set out the long-term direction of the programme and ensure funding is correctly balanced between schemes. This would also provide a positive vision for farmers and greater clarity on progress towards environmental targets. This must be underpinned by a more robust monitoring and evaluation program, to check what is working and give the ability to tweak.
It was also revealed that whilst ELMs is underpinned by 16 objectives, there is no specific objective monitoring species abundance – one of the most pressing targets in the Environmental Improvement Plan, to halt species abundance loss by 2030. This omission is a serious misstep, and promises to develop a species abundance measure by March 2025 come too late. The programme is unlikely to meet a stretching target it only starts to measure against four years in advance.
Crumbling IT threatens delivery
The department made another misstep by building ELMs on legacy IT systems that are no longer fit for purpose. There is a ticking clock on the development time remaining, which is sorely needed to make sure the system can cope with more CS Higher Tier applications and that the SFI is better targeted.
Whilst there are urgent issues for the programme to tackle straightforward tweaks are brought to light, none of which require a dramatic change of direction for ELMs. Given constraints on budget, reducing deadweight spend in the SFI should be an early priority for the government, by reinvesting the SFI management fee into advice, and introducing elements of guided choice to better target action. Scaling up access to CS Higher Tier, particularly for HLS farmers stuck on lower payment rates, is even more pressing, to frontload action for nature and climate and ensure a just transition.
Verity Winn is a Senior Policy Officer (Agriculture) at RSPB. Follow @Natures_Voice
The opinions expressed in this blog are the authors' and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership.
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