The Environmental Land Management Scheme: Public goods and levels of ambition

The Environmental Land Management Scheme is now established as the central plank of financial assistance for farmers in England post-Brexit. Early articulations of policy directed the focus of the Scheme to the delivery of public goods, with a high level of ambition. More recently, however, greater weight is being accorded to food production and food security, with particular reference to the Sustainable Farming Incentive component, which is achieving broad coverage and accounting for the majority of the Scheme budget, but the environmental actions which it requires to unlock payment would not seem materially to be raising the bar. By contrast, the Landscape Recovery component remains ambitious in terms of scheme design, collaborative approach, emphasis on outcomes, duration and implementation at landscape scale, with the consequence that good reasons may be presented for its expansion within the policy mix.