Ben Sharples explores the implications of two consequential pieces of agricultural legislation
The arrival of the Environment Act 2021 followed the enactment of the Agriculture Act 2020, wherein a statutory framework for a completely new direction for rural and agricultural policy across the UK was created.
The Agriculture Act 2020 provides (among many measures) for the transition from the EU "payments-for-occupation-of-land" subsidy scheme to a domestic one, which gives "public-money-for-public-good". Although widely defined, the ‘public good’ includes a large number of environmental measures, which tie in closely with obligations imposed in the Environment Act 2021.
The new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) offers not only individual farm subsidies under the Sustainable Farmi...