#IncludeCommons Campaign
Common land is being excluded from new ELM schemes.
Defra and the Rural Payments Agency have confirmed that due to a lack of online functionality hundreds of thousands of hectares of common land and shared grazing will be either excluded entirely or trapped in outdated, lower-paying HLS schemes.
This will negatively affect over 4000 farm businesses, threatening livelihoods, damaging communities, and risking the loss of the very farming systems that sustain some of England’s most valued landscapes.
The national landscapes we love are being let down by the Government.
Environment: Common Land contains 21% of all SSSI’s, the most valuable and irreplaceable environments we have.
Economy: Over 4000 farm businesses will lose critical income, testing the viability necessary to maintain these vital landscapes.
Wellbeing: 82% of common land lies within National Parks and National Landscapes, without suitable funding we risk losing the landscapes that over 90 million people visit annually to help them reduce stress and improve their mental and physical wellbeing.
FCL are calling on Defra and the RPA to urgently:
Introduce an offline application mechanism for SFI and CSHT
Ensure fair and equal access for common land agreements
Provide payment parity with non-common land
You can help raise awareness of this issue by:
Commons are ready to deliver for nature, climate and communities.
Now the system must enable them to do so.