Squaring the Countryside Code with the Sustainable Farming Incentive

The Countryside Code was first published in 1951. It is 70 years old this year and the government has celebrated by launching a new version. Happy birthday! The government is now very keen that we should get out and about in the countryside as much as possible to repair our mental health and slim our obese bodies. A “refreshed tone of voice” has been used for the new code – a guide rather than a list of rules, we are told. Land management advice Alongside the code itself, there is another document, Advice for Land Managers. There are three points: know your rights, responsibilities and liabilities; make it easy for visitors to act responsibly; and identify possible threats to visitors’ safety. The last one would be worth adding to the periodic reviews of health and safety risk assessments. For visitors to the countryside, the government is trying to make a more welcoming and inclusive environment. The code is clearer on what to do about dog poo – bag it and bin it or take it home. Visitors are asked not to feed the animals, but they are asked to say hello to everybody they meet: “Be nice, say hello, share the space.” We are asked to stay on footpaths even where they are muddy, and we should get permission for freshwater swimming. Much of the old advice is still there: walk facing the traffic, leave gates as you found them, don’t block gates, take your litter home (bring a bag to do so), keep your dog under control. We are also urged to check tide times, and to check our route and local conditions. There is even a web link to tide tables. This highlights, however, something which is missing from the code. Too many visitors to the countryside, even the more exposed upland areas, rely on no more than their mobile phone for navigation. Where are the links to the Ordnance Survey, and guidance on route planning and map reading? Where are the sanctions for litterbugs and worse? Sustainable Farming Incentive The Agriculture Act 2020 made public access to the countryside a priority by including the promotion of access on the list of items that Defra can fund through its grant and support schemes. We are now starting to see the first details of the Sustainable Farming Incentive, one of the schemes which will replace the support payments made to farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy by 2025. The new incentive is the lowest-level scheme, and higher-level schemes called Landscape Recovery and Local Nature Recovery will follow in 2024. Defra is now recruiting farmer volunteers for pilot schemes for the Sustainable Farming Incentive. Participants will be asked to sign up to one or more of eight standards, each of which is offered at up to three levels. The standards cover arable and horticultural land, grassland, hedgerows, on-farm woodland and waterside buffer strips. Each of the eight standards is offered at up to three levels of participation, with some additional payments available, eg for in-field trees, as well. Defra also wants to test the use of land management plans as a main component of the new scheme and has suggested it could be a good idea to publish these plans, or parts of them. Why? The answer is so that the public can see what is being achieved with its money for the rural environment. This is likely to be a disincentive to farmers. The sums of money on offer don’t seem very tempting either, and some of our better lowland farmers seem almost certain to turn their back on these schemes to avoid the effort and cost of compliance. The improved grassland standard, for example, offers £27 per ha (circa £11 per acre) at the introductory level, rising to £97 per ha (circa £39 per acre) at the advanced level. Requirements at the basic level will include a minimum sward height (to encourage insects and other fauna), field margins to be left uncut, historic features to be under permanent grass, a nutrient management plan, and small areas to be taken out of cutting and grazing management. The levels build on each other, so the farmer on the advanced level will also have to maintain higher sward heights over a wider area, introduce a greater variety of herbs into his or her pastures, carry out detailed soil mapping and use precision fertiliser and manure spreading machinery. Connecting the incentive and the code? Details of both were published within a month or so of each other. The Agriculture Act 2020 enables Defra to promote the benefits of public access through its support regime. The Sustainable Farming Incentive is intended to be a scheme widely taken up by farmers, far more widely than the two higher-level schemes which are not due until 2024. It is therefore surprising that there appears to be nothing in the Sustainable Farming Incentive about public access. The answer to this might be that the maintenance of the network of public footpaths and bridleways is already the responsibility of land managers. Land managers are legally obliged to look after the network so there is no need to pay them to do so. This is a logical application of the “polluter pays” principle, itself included as an environmental principle in the current Environment Bill. But there is a gulf between maintaining public rights of way to minimum standards and the work that can be done to enhance the experience for users and to create new opportunities for land managers. The failure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive to act on this is a regrettable oversight. Let’s hope Defra sees this too and fills the gap. Charles Cowap is a rural practice chartered surveyor Photo by FLPA/Shutterstock