Realising the true potential of the South West’s upland areas will require co-operation between government departments and a convincing delivery structure – according to a CLA policy paper launched today (Monday 20 December).
The CLA report on the Uplands titled: “High Hopes” is a follow-up to the Commission for Rural Communities report of July 2010 - but expands on its themes and recommendations.
The report says that there is no single - or simple - set of policy adjustments required to help realise all the potential of our upland areas and argues that several government departments and many distinct areas of government policy will need to be involved in the process.
CLA South West Director John Mortimer said: “The Uplands are immensely important to society because their active management - by farmers, foresters and sporting interests - provides vital goods and services of food, water, wildlife, landscape and a wonderful choice of leisure and tourism opportunities.”
The CLA is concerned because of the low or negative financial margins in one of the core activities of upland farmers – grazing livestock production. Mr Mortimer said many such businesses survive only because of public payments – but he warned that the future of these payments and their value was uncertain. A radical rethink of the way upland farms are supported by the EU Common Agricultural Policy is needed.
“Currently upland land managers provide a range of goods and services which the market does not pay for, but their ability to achieve sufficient income to enable essential ongoing reinvestment in their businesses is critical to the future of the Uplands. This goal will not be reached by selling agricultural products alone - economic diversification and the provision of environmental services such as water, climate protection, biodiversity and cultural landscape will become increasingly important,” he said.
The report makes more than 35 recommendations for sustaining the Uplands and focuses on the policy areas which the CLA believes require specific attention in order to release the real potential of the Uplands. In particular it examines changes in the main existing support policy, the Common Agricultural Policy; ideas for bringing in new sources of finance especially for carbon and water; the need for vital infrastructure - especially broadband - and, critically, changes in the planning system and its application to enable rural economic diversification and to provide affordable rural housing.
“To unlock the potential of our Uplands and to ensure delivery of this suite of measures requires real buy-in from Government and some leadership from upland society itself.
"There are a lot of good ideas around to do this, and the report of the Efra committee review and Defra’s internal Uplands project provide the opportunity to make rapid progress on this agenda.”
Download a copy of “High Hopes – CLA report on the Uplands” from: http://www.cla.org.uk/Policy_Work/CLA_Uplands_Report/
For further information on the CLA go to: www.cla.org.uk
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