Countryside Stewardship Scheme (Hansard, 18 May 1995)

§ Mr. Waldegrave

The Government are publishing today a public consultation document which seeks views on the development of the Government's strategy for environmental land management schemes in England. The consultation document results from a review of the future role of the countryside stewardship scheme and of ways of better integrating and focusing all environmental land management schemes in England, announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment last year on 21 June 1994,Official Report, column 106. The review was carried out by a working group comprising officials from my Department, the Department of the Environment, the Countryside Commission, English Heritage and English Nature. Copies of the consultation document are available in the Library of the House.

The Government believe that environmental land management schemes are one important means of promoting environmental and amenity benefits in the countryside. The conclusion of the pilot phase of countryside stewardship and the decision that it should be transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1996 represent a landmark in the development of such schemes and an opportune moment to review their strategic development.

The main proposals of the working group are that: the countryside stewardship scheme should continue to be based on the key principles established during the pilot phase; subject to the availability of resources, the full range of stewardship options should be retained; countryside stewardship and the environmentally sensitive areas scheme should be developed into the Ministry's two core environmental schemes when I take over responsibility for stewardship from April 1996; the farm and conservation grant scheme should not continue as a separate scheme in England but capital grants for conservation purposes should be integrated into other schemes, principally countryside stewardship; further scheme mergers should be considered once the new agri-environment schemes have been operating long enough to be evaluated; subject to resources being available, the focus of countryside stewardship should be broadened to include two new options targeting traditional stone walls and banks and the remaining unimproved areas of old meadow and pasture on neutral and acid soils throughout lowland England; the ministry should develop a fuller information service to act as a first stop shop for information and basic advice on the range of environmental schemes for farmers and land managers.

In addition, I have decided in consultation with my right hon. Friend that a national steering group should be set up to advise the Ministry on the objectives, targets and priorities of all its environmental incentive schemes, their effective development and deployment and their monitoring and evaluation, and that liaison arrangements should also be made regionally.

The objective of these proposals is to improve the integration and focus, and hence the effectiveness and 320W efficiency of the Government's range of environmental land management schemes. They are designed to improve the service provided to land managers and to yield greater environmental benefits in the countryside. As such, they would represent a major development of the Government's strategy for such schemes.

My right hon. Friend and I look forward to receiving the responses to this consultation document, which will be fully taken into account in the Government's preparation of the forthcoming rural White Paper.