§ Mr. CranTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when details of the top-up payments for farmers who undertake to bring about environmental improvements on set-aside land will be announced.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyDetails of the Countryside Premium for set-aside land were announced today by the chairman of the Countryside Commission. The scheme will be run by the Countryside Commission, with the help of the Nature Conservancy Council and in close co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. We believe it will ensure that the set-aside scheme introduced last year by MAFF will produce positive benefits for the environment. We welcome the imaginative way this scheme has been developed.
Farmers will be invited to manage their set-aside land in ways that will benefit landscape and wildlife habitat, or provide increased recreational opportunities for the local community. Five options will be available to farmers, comprising the management of existing hedgerows or creation of new hedgerows and belts of broadleaved trees and shrubs; the creation of grassland area for the enjoyment of local people and the benefit of wildlife; the creation of habitat for suitable ground-nesting birds; the provision in selected areas of winter grazing for Brent geese; and the restoration of particularly valuable habitat in certain areas.
The scheme will be discretionary with applications assessed on their merits. Payments to farmers will range from £45 to £120 per hectare.
The scheme will initially be open to farmers in eastern England, in the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire and Suffolk. This is an area in which there has been a relatively high rate of take-up for set aside, and the scope for environmental improvement under the countryside premium is that much greater.