Rural Affairs

Specific funding for the Uplands

The uplands are nationally and internationally important for biodiversity as well as being of significant landscape, archaeological, recreational, heritage, and natural resource value. They also play a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Agricultural activity has largely shaped the upland landscape that we value.

Without some form of management these areas could lose these valuable environmental and landscape values. Historically hill farmers have carried out management of these areas, predominantly through sheep and cattle grazing. In recognition of the important role that hill farmers play in maintaining the uplands, the Government provides specific funding to support upland farmers.

This funding is currently provided through the Hill Farm Allowance (HFA). See “The Hill Farm Allowance – from 2007 to 2010” for more information.

The HFA will continue to be paid up until 2010, after which point it will be a new uplands strand to the entry level Environmental Stewardship scheme, known as Uplands ELS.  Farmers will be able to enter an Uplands ELS agreement from 1 July 2010.

The Secretary of State announced the full details of Uplands ELS and the associated transitional arrangements in December 2008.  See "Uplands ELS - from 2010" and “Transitional arrangements – from the HFA to Uplands ELS” for further information.

The details of Uplands ELS are subject to European Commission approval.

The Hill Farm Allowance - from 2007 onwards

The Hill Farm Allowance (HFA) was rolled over under the new Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), which commenced in 2007. It has now been extended further by one year and will continue until 2010, after which time it will be replaced by Uplands ELS. The aims of the HFA under the RDPE are to continue to:

  • Recognise the difficulties that farmers face in these regions and the vital role they play in delivering the landscape and environmental benefits for England’s uplands.
  • Help to preserve the farmed upland environment by ensuring that land in the Severely Disadvantaged Areas is managed in a sustainable way. Contribute to the maintenance of the social fabric in upland communities through support for continued agricultural land use.

Further information on the HFA for 2009 is available from the Rural Payments Agency. Information on the HFA 2008 and previous years is available on the Defra website.

Further information can be obtained from the Rural Payments Agency’s Customer Service Centre

Uplands ELS - from 2010

In 2006, the Government announced that uplands support will be fully integrated into Environmental Stewardship from 2010.  A new uplands strand to the entry level Environmental Stewardship scheme, known as Uplands ELS, with therefore replace the HFA following its final payment in 2010.

The objective of this change is to move away from the compensatory nature of the HFA and towards a more targeted scheme which rewards farmers for maintaining and improving the upland landscape and environment.

By encouraging farmers to carry out simple yet effective environmental management, Uplands ELS will maintain and improve the biodiversity, natural resources, landscape and historical values of the uplands, and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. It will do so working alongside the other strands of Environmental Stewardship (ELS, OELS and Higher Level Stewardship).

Uplands ELS will reward farmers for the provision and maintenance of landscape and environmental benefits.  Farmers will obtain points by meeting a series of requirements and selecting from a menu of land management options.  As with the ELS and OELS, farmers will have to meet a points threshold in Uplands ELS, based on the size of their farm and type of land, to qualify for funding.

For full details of Uplands ELS, including information on payment rates, please go to www.defra.gov.uk/rural/uplands/supportqa.htm. For the list of options and requirements please go to www.defra.gov.uk/rural/pdfs/uplands/els-options.pdf [PDF] (290 KB).

The details of Uplands ELS  are subject to European Commission approval.

Transitional arrangements: from the HFA to Uplands ELS

The Secretary of State’s announcement on Uplands ELS in December 2008 also covered the associated transitional arrangements for the move from the HFA to Uplands ELS.

This includes the continuation of the HFA in 2010, which will significantly smooth the impact on farmers’ cash flow, reducing the payment gap that they would otherwise face between the HFA and their first Uplands ELS payment.

He also announced a start date for Uplands ELS agreements from 1 July 2010, to provide farmers with more time to understand Uplands ELS and how it will fit on their farm.

Defra will also provide a transitional payment from 2011 for farmers who farm land still under a Countryside Stewardship or ESA agreement, providing they received the HFA in 2010 on that land, and meet the other eligibility conditions. Due to double-funding rules, land in a Countryside Stewardship or ESA agreement cannot be entered into Uplands ELS.  The transitional payment will ensure that farmers who previously received the HFA, but cannot enter land into Uplands ELS because it is under a Countryside Stewardship or ESA agreement, will not miss out on specific uplands support when the HFA ends in 2010.  In this way, it will ensure that early-adopters of agri-environment are not disadvantaged by the move from the HFA to Uplands ELS.

The farmer will not have to be the agreement holder of the Countryside Stewardship or ESA agreement to qualify for the transitional payment, but the land in question will have to be ‘available’ to them, as currently defined under the HFA.  This means that in a situation where a tenant farmer, or a farmer with a short-term let, grazes land that is under an ESA or CSS agreement held by the landlord, we would expect the tenant farmer rather than the landlord to be eligible for the transitional payment, provided they received the HFA on that land in 2010 and meet all the other eligibility conditions.”

Like the HFA, payment rates for this transitional payment will be set annually. They will be broadly similar to the HFA rates (including the payment taper and cap); and like the HFA, will be claimed via the annual SPS claim form.  Fuller detail will be provided in due course. 

Providing all the other eligibility conditions are met, farmers will be paid on all eligible SDA land on the affected holding. The transitional payment will not extend to common land associated with that farm unless that common is also in an ESA or Countryside Stewardship agreement.

The details of the transitional arrangements are subject to European Commission approval.

Development of Uplands ELS

A public consultation on the “Future of Uplands Support” was undertaken in 2006, setting out options for the successor to the HFA.  Following this consultation, the former Environment Secretary David Milliband announced that uplands support would be fully integrated into Environmental Stewardship from 2010.  In July 2008 the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, confirmed that this would be done through an uplands strand of Entry Level Stewardship.

Defra developed the proposals for Uplands ELS working closely with Natural England and stakeholders, including through a hill farmer’s panel.  We consulted more widely on the proposed design of Uplands ELS over the summer of 2008, including through a series of 6 regional meetings with the hill farming community.  The  proposals were also tested by the Central Science Laboratory on 66 upland farms around the country.  This consultation and testing informed the final design of Uplands ELS, which was announced in December 2008.

The Policy context

In recent years there has been much debate about the role of traditional hill farmers, their contribution to the rural economy and the role they play in maintaining the landscape and biodiversity value of the English Uplands. Recent policy developments, evaluations and initiatives relevant to support for the LFAs include:

Page last modified: 17 April, 2009
Page published: 23 January 2007

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs