15 National Organisations ask Minster Eagle to overcome the ‘Computer says No’ to Commons
Our request: Manual Processing of Commons Agreements
Following Defra and the RPA’s acknowledgment that all Common Land is excluded from SFI and CSHT for 2026, and maybe also 2027, a coalition of 15 organisations from the environment, farming and protected landscapes sectors have written to Minister Eagle at Defra.
Our joint request is:
“We are writing to ask you to please request the RPA introduces a manual system for issuing and managing common land agreements. The RPA did this for SFI23 agreements and it has worked very well.
Photo of the Langdales in the Lake District; 3200 ha of common land, the 9 graziers wants to enter an ELM scheme and are excluded
While England’s Commons are managed by approx. 3,900 active farming businesses the total pool of ELM agreements that would be required to be processed manually is only about 250 over the next three years. This is because commoners and the landowners come together in associations and manage commons collectively.
It is inequitable that the marginal farm businesses that manage this iconic land, that comprises 21% of England’s SSSIs, are being excluded from new schemes. There is huge energy and interest by these businesses to do more for nature recovery and climate resilience yet they are being prevented by the ‘computer saying no’.”
The full text of the letter can be read here:
The 15 organisations who signed the letter are are:
Campaign for National Parks
Chilterns National Landscape
CLA
Foundation for Common Land
National Farmers Union
National Parks England
National Sheep Association
National Trust
New Forest National Park Authority
North Pennines National Landscape
Open Spaces Society
RSPB
Tenant Farmers Association
The Farmer Network
The Wildlife Trusts