You are here:

Uplands Support/Hill Farm Allowance

  1. How much money is available for Hill Farm Allowance (HFA)?
  2. What happens after 2009?
  3. What is the budget for the scheme that replaces the HFA in 2010?
  4. Why maintain financial support in the uplands?
  5. Who gets the Hill Farm Allowance?
1.  How much money is available for Hill Farm Allowance (HFA)?
  • For 2008 and 2009, we estimate that expenditure will be around £23.7 million. (The mechanics of the HFA are such that an estimate has to be made in advance of the claims being processed). This has reduced from 2007 as a result of the removal of the 'Disadvantaged Areas'. (This money has been retained within the Rural Development Programme for England and will be used to boost the funds available under Environmental Stewardship, including in the uplands).
2.  What happens after 2009?
  • Uplands support will be fully integrated into Environmental Stewardship from 2010. After careful consideration of consultation responses, and taking into account the need for effective planning and implementation, the Government has confirmed that the Hill Farm Allowance will be replaced with Uplands ELS, an uplands strand of the entry level Environmental Stewardship scheme.
  •  Uplands Entry Level Stewardship will enable us to recognise the key role of upland farmers in delivering many of our environmental and landscape objectives, whilst also enabling us to better target the funding towards the delivery of public benefits. Like ELS, Uplands ELS would be open to all eligible farmers, and would offer a higher payment than ELS to reflect the higher costs of farming in these areas.
  • Defra has worked closely with Natural England and stakeholders, including through a hill farmers' panel to develop proposals for Uplands ELS and the first phase of the development process has ended. Consultation on these proposals is continuing over the summer with the aim of finalising them by autumn 2008. Defra and Natural England will be meeting with hill farming communities in late August and early September to outline the proposals and seek their views.
  • An informal paper was issued on Monday 11 August 2008 seeking views from stakeholder organisations on key design aspects of Uplands ELS. Responses are expected by 17 September 2008.
  • A link to the consultation can be found on the following web page www.defra.gov.uk/rural/pdfs/uplands/upland-els-question.pdf (PDF 108KB)
  • The proposal is also being tested on 60 hill farms across England to ensure they are practical and achieve our objectives.
3.  What is the budget for the scheme that replaces the HFA in 2010?
  • As already announced, specific uplands support will be fully integrated into Environmental Stewardship by 2010. It will not therefore have a separate budget and funding will be drawn from the £3 billion allocated to agri-environment schemes in this programme.
4.  Why maintain financial support in the uplands?
  • Farming has played a key role in shaping the upland landscape, which is internationally recognised for its biodiversity and as a highly valued part of our national heritage.
  • England’s uplands contain a high proportion of designations, such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
  • The rationale for providing specific support through Uplands ELS is to secure public goods on a landscape scale additional to those delivered by ELS by encouraging large numbers of upland farmers and land managers to deliver simple yet effective environmental management in the uplands.  This is in recognition of the significance of these areas to delivery of a wide range of public benefits and the critical role that farmers and land managers continue to play in this, in particular through extensive livestock grazing.
5.  Who gets the Hill Farm Allowance?
  • Hill Farm Allowance provides dedicated support to beef and sheep producers who farm in upland areas, in recognition of the difficulties that farmers face in these regions and the vital support they play in maintaining the landscape and rural communities of the hills.
  • From 2008, eligibility for the Hill Farm Allowance has been limited to those farming in the “Severely Disadvantaged Areas” (SDA).

Page last modified: 28 August, 2009
Page published: 21 July, 2005