Tenants Face Issues with Uplands ELS
by Taunton Office
November 17, 2009
In 2010 uplands support will be fully integrated to Environmental Stewardship with farmers being able to apply to enter Uplands Entry Level Stewardship (UELS) from 1 January 2010, says Ryan Kuszek of leading agents Carver Knowles. UELS will replace the Hill Farm Allowance (HFA) and will be open to all farmers and land managers, unlike HFA which excludes dairy farmers, those who do not keep livestock and very small holdings.
“The objective of UELS will be to encourage farmers to carry out simple but effective environmental management and they will be paid for doing so. Farmers will need to have or enter into ELS (or OELS) agreements in order to gain UELS payments, for which they will need to obtain further points by meeting specific requirements from the land management options. For SDA moorland parcels of 15ha or larger, farmers will receive an ELS payment rate of £23 per ha (including the existing ELS rate). For SDA moorland parcels smaller than 15ha, and SDA land below the moorland line, farmers will receive £62 per ha” explains Mr Kuszek.
Mr Kuszek remarks that an important difference between UELS and HFA are the entry requirements. Similar to ELS, UELS will require the claimant to have management control over the land for a 5 year period (the length of the agreement). This is a key difference from HFA. The applicant will also be required to enter the whole farm into the scheme.
Careful consideration is therefore needed, in particular with regard to tenant farmers. It is possible that under an FBT, the tenant will not be allowed to enter into ELS or have over-riding management conditions in the tenancy which have to be followed. There will also be an issue if the tenancy has less than 5 years left to run as the tenant will not have management control for the required period. AHA tenants may have similar issues with regard to breaching management conditions and graziers will face problems by not having management control for 5 years. In addition, further complications will be caused if the landlord or licensor already holds an ELS agreement on the land which is let or grazed, as well as any tenancies involving public bodies who are generally not eligible to enter into ELS.
Mr Kuszek advises that in order for farmers to secure UELS payments, informed advice should be taken and discussions started sooner rather than later with landlords or licensors. Farmers looking for further advice and information should contact Ryan Kuszek or Mark Sanders at Carver Knowles on 01823 350000. Mark Sanders is the RICS representative of the Tenancy Reform Industry Group (TRIG) and advises DEFRA on landlord and tenant issues regarding UELS.