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<p>The Health and Harmony Consultation closed on 8 May 2018. Over forty thousand responses
were received from a wide range of people including farmers, environmental and food/farming
related organisations and the general public. All responses have been analysed and
are being used to inform our policies on future farm support.</p><p> </p><p>The Government
published its policy response on 14 September setting out a future for food, farming
and the environment in a green Brexit, together with reports on its analysis of the
impacts of removing direct payments and economic rationales for future government
intervention.</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s assessment was to adopt a gradual transition
from the current approach to the new, avoiding a cliff-edge for farm businesses -
noting the negative experiences in New Zealand when rapid changes were adopted. Our
proposals therefore outline a 7 year transition period.</p><p> </p><p>We are applying
reductions to Direct Payments in a fair way, with higher reductions initially applied
to amounts in higher payment bands. All farmers will see some reductions from the
start of the transition. We plan to begin making these reductions in 2021, with the
final year for Direct Payments being 2027. We believe that this approach balances
the views of those who feel recipients of the highest payments should initially face
higher reductions, with the strong calls for the reductions to be shared amongst all
farmers from the start of the transition and in a way that prepares the industry for
change. The transition period also needs to be long enough to give farmers sufficient
time to adapt and prepare for the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme,
which starts in 2024.</p><p> </p><p>The ELM National Pilot, starting in late 2021,
will assess the end to end operability and deliverability before the scheme is rolled
out in 2024. This will allow us to identify and refine any issues or barriers that
occur in practice. We are working closely with a range of agricultural and environmental
stakeholders to collaboratively design the new scheme, and to test and trial new approaches
and investigate innovative mechanisms for the delivery of environmental outcomes.</p><p>
</p><p>Defra recognises the challenges around the uncertainty and outcome of the timing
of leaving the EU. It is planning for every contingency to ensure a smooth departure
from the EU, including detailed ’no deal’ plans.</p>
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