Landscape recovery under threat as contracts can be 'ripped up after a year'

An ambitious scheme to restore England’s nature over the course of decades has been dealt a blow after the government inserted a clause allowing it to terminate contracts with just a year’s notice, conservationists have said.

- Helena Horton

The project was designed to fund nature restoration across thousands of hectares, on large estates or across multiple farms and nature reserves. This would enable the creation of reserves for rare species to thrive.

Conservationists have warned this new clause, as well as underfunding, will lead to low take-up and less land protected for nature. They say it is not feasible to allow contracts to be ripped up after a year, as landowners will be left with rewilded land without enough notice to reconvert it.

Landscape recovery is part of the environmental land management schemes (Elms) introduced by the previous government to replace EU farming subsidies. Initially, the schemes were to be split into three strands, with landscape recovery receiving a third of the £2.4bn a year funding pot.

But this week, the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, announced the projects would be given only £500m over 20 years.