DEFRA has started a new blog, called Land Use: Policies and Framework. The blog is to publish updates on the work of the DEFRA Land Use team, including the Land Use Framework, Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS), Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), nutrient neutrality, and wider enhancement of the environment through the planning system. Sign up details are available on the Government website....
Last week’s CAAV E-Briefing leader ended by pointing to the opportunities for members to apply skills in advising clients on adapting to the climate change that is here and to come: “It seems sensible for property-based, resource and weather-dependent small businesses with longer term outlooks, like farms and estates, also to look ahead, especially when undertaking new projects or reviewing strategy. As trusted advisers, both bringing a wider view and knowing the property and business,...
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has launched an online tool for reporting dead wild birds. The tool is compatible with desktop and mobile applications and allows accurate reporting of the location of the find. Further information is available on the DAERA website at Wild Birds and Advice for the Public....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 20th July 2023 Setting records, Mediterranean Europe is for some days nudging 50oC (122oF) while that has been broken in parts of the USA and China. While Italian dairy farmers install fans and sprinklers for their cows, this is only two months after seven months’ rain fell on Italy’s Emilia Romagna in two days, flooding 43 towns, with over 400 landslides and displacing 50,000 people. As that shows, climate change is...
DEFRA has announced two webinars on Biodiversity Net Gain to help those looking to enter the off-site market. 2nd August, 3:30 – 4:30pm: Biodiversity Net Gain for landowners: how to get involved – suitable if you’re new to BNG, or want to understand the off-site process step by step. 7th August, 2 – 3pm: Biodiversity metric demonstration for landowners – also relevant to ecologists, learn how to use the biodiversity metric to calculate how many off-site units you can produce on...
Members working on Countryside Stewardship using the Mid Tier On-Line system will be aware that there have been technical issues with the application portal on the Rural Payments Service: see our note of 12th July. The CAAV has been engaging with DEFRA and the RPA, providing examples of the problems encountered and pressing for a swift resolution. A series of system updates to the Rural Payments Service was made on Monday evening (17th July), now found to have enabled a number of applications to...
Animal Health and Welfare Pathway - FETF The RPA has today started issuing decisions on Animal Health and Welfare grant funding agreements. Successful applicants will have until Monday 11th September to accept the agreement offered. There is a small number of applications for which further clarification is needed. We understand the the RPA is seeking to resolve outstanding points with those applicants....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 13th July 2023 Our development control system was created in 1947 in an economy depressed in the wake of war and when it was thought that “the man in Whitehall knows best”. Distinctive around the globe for its site-specific micro-management, it has been under growing strain for decades. What was intended as a technocratic process became more open and then overtaken by the popular resistance to development seen in many...
Having raised a number of members’ problems with the Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier On-Line application system with the RPA, it has now recognised that there are issues which it is tackling with its IT suppliers so that they are resolved for affected applicants. The CAAV has been told: “We are putting support in place for those affected, including measures to ensure those who experience issues are not excluded from applying.”...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 6th July 2023 The re-electrification of Britain is a key part of the net zero agenda. The broad, high level policy aims are to double the amount of electricity we use by 2050 and so to double the amount generated, all as renewable energy, powering most heat and transport. That means doubling the amount to be transmitted and distributed across the country between generation and use, across clients’ land to give the capacity...
Natural England has opened the second round of the Tees Valley Nutrient Mitigation Scheme for applications. The application window closes at 11:55pm on 28 July 2023. For more background on the scheme, which is open to those undertaking residential development in the Tees Valley catchment area, see our website note from July 2022....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 29th June 2023 The gathering winds of change for farming not only see England now well advanced in its agricultural transition but each of the three devolved areas have their new post-Basic Payment regimes come into place from 2025. Within some 32 months, DEFRA has now put in place the largest part of the key architecture for its agricultural transition: farming will now have no more direct payments, put more clearly...
DEFRA has updated the guidance on the impact of the HS2 Scheme on existing agreements under Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship. On 28th June, the window for claiming force majeure – that the agreement holder will no longer be able to complete the actions of the agreement through no fault of their own – has been extended. Those affected should write to Rural Payments Agency within 8 weeks of HS2 Ltd entering their land....
Natural England has confirmed the designation of 3,044 hectares of land in West Cornwall as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The area, known as West Penwith, includes lowland heathland, fens and dry acid grassland, lichens, wetland valley mires, as well as some surrounding 'clean' agricultural land. For more background, see our website note of 6th June....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 22nd June 2023 Something needs to wake us up about the extent of economic stagnation in the UK (and the EU) since 2008, resulting in our current crisis with low incomes in the face of costs. Not only has our flat-lining since 2008 broken from our growth trend since the eighteenth century but the USA gives a current comparison – as ever with issues - showing a strikingly different story over the last 15 years: in 2008,...
A landowner and contractor have been ordered by a judge to pay costs in excess of £255,000 for illegally felling more than 270 protected trees. The charges included fines, confiscation monies and the Council's costs. The charges related to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, with the trees subject to a Tree Preservation Order and sitting within the Clay Hill Conservation Area. The Council has served a Tree Replacement Notice for 284 trees under the Town and Country Planning (Tree...
From June 2023 onward, the Dean Organic Fund will be accepting applications for new loans from its £450,000 revolving fund.Applicants must be UK-based companies, partnerships or individuals, active in organic-certified and/or ecologically sound farming and food businessesLoan amounts will be between £5,000 and £25,000Loans will be interest-free and unsecuredLoans will be repayable over periods of no more 5 years. Repayments will normally be in monthly installments starting after the first...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 15th June 2023 We have yet really to see the scale of what is involved in the climate change already to come, in mitigating and in adapting to it with the substantial trade-offs that will be needed. With El Niño changes now in the Pacific, the expectations are of above trend world temperatures for 2024 – a taste of the future – with the potential for the UK to have a harsher winter and a hotter summer. At what point will...
The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 have been amended to prohibit the installation of direct emission heating systems in new buildings effective from 1st April 2024. The prohibition follows a consultation launched in August 2022 and reported in our note at the time. A zero direct emissions heating system is defined as one by which the building is heated or cooled or by which hot water is made available using thermal energy located within the building or its curtilage and which emits more...