Climate change is no longer a future problem for Britain’s farmers, with weather extremes now routinely impacting agricultural profits. Government has the ideal opportunity to support farms to become more resilient to their greatest threats (climate change and biodiversity loss).

In England, the viability of many farms now depends on the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELM), and while some elements of the policy do hold promise, government progress towards environmental commitments remain largely off track. Additionally, while we know the main components of ELM, farmers are still operating with great uncertainty. To date, neither the current government nor the Labour party have provided a vision for the future of ELM.

In this briefing, we detail a six-point plan for the future of the policy that would empower smaller farms and position the UK as one of the first countries in the world to have an agricultural policy founded on the delivery of public goods.