UK Land Use At A Crossroads Due To Coronavirus

• Published date: 08 June 2020
• Author: Mr Bertie Hoskyns-Abrahall
• Subject Matter: Real Estate and Construction, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Land Law & Agriculture, Operational Impacts and Strategy
• Law Firm: Withers LLP

Even before Covid-19 UK farming was at a crossroads. There was no definitive moment when everything changed, although Brexit is something of a line in the sand, but the conversation about how we use our land has crept to the front of the stage and now seems to feature in some form or another in every newspaper that we open.

No two farms are the same. Some are on the edge or within striking distance of a town, or have good transport links to a wealthy demographic, and others are out of the way. Some are mountainous and picturesque, and others are productive and unattractive (although beauty is in the eye of the beholder!). It seems that like never before, there is an exciting future for all types of land. It is no longer a case of arable land: good; pasture land: less good, and as we enter a new subsidy regime with the departure from the EU and the common agricultural policy it looks like the tables will be turned in that regard at least. The uplands stand to be the big winners from the new environmental land management schemes (ELMs) where funds are paid for public goods only. Essentially this means an end to subsidised food production, because farming itself is not deemed to be a public good. Farmers will now need to look after other things in order to qualify for a subsidy - their soils, the water that flows over their land (both the speed at which is travels and the nutrients or pollutants that it picks up on its way) nature, biodiversity and of course the provision of leisure opportunities for the public.

But the productive lowlands may also find an opportunity for support; principally on account of the fact that they have (not always, but) often been degraded to some extent in the pursuit of higher productivity. Their soils may have been worked so hard that they are in poor condition, or the water flows may have been interfered with to such an extent that there is little room for nature. There are no wild corners. As a consequence of this historic land use, these very productive (industrialised?) farms will have a low baseline value for biodiversity, or natural capital, as it is now known. It turns out that a low baseline is probably going to be a good place to start as it leaves a great deal of room for improvement. We are told that a private market will be established to reward those landowners who improve their natural capital up from their baseline to their maximum potential. This private market will reward biodiversity net gain and carbon...