The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 24th July 2023:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what support exists for farmers who are not claimants of the Basic Payment Scheme and who want to plant hedges and trees for the purpose of carbon sequestration.
Lord Benyon (Con, DEFRA): There are several options available for farmers who are not claimants of the Basic Payment Scheme. Under the Countryside Stewardship (CS) Scheme, we pay for the management of hedgerows by rotational cutting and leaving some hedgerows uncut (BE3) and capital grants to plant and restore hedgerows. This includes hedgerow laying, hedgerow cropping and hedgerow gapping up.
We pay for actions to create woodland under CS and the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO). This includes capital grants which are required to create woodland, such as planting trees and allowing natural colonisation of trees. Producing woodland creation plans ensure all proposals for new woodland consider any impacts on existing biodiversity, landscape character, water, soil and the historic environment, and that local stakeholders have been consulted. Maintenance payments are also essential to support the establishment of young trees.
Woodland creation maintenance payments currently exist across multiple schemes including CS, EWCO and the Tree Health Pilot. We plan to bring these together into a single offer when EWCO transitions into the Environmental Land Management schemes. For Woodland management, under CS, we pay for producing a woodland management plan, woodland improvement and restoring plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites.
Farmers and land managers can also apply to get money for projects that support carbon sequestration via our Landscape Recovery Scheme.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what incentive schemes exist to promote the uptake of renewables among British farmers.
Lord Benyon: Food production is the primary purpose of farming and we are backing British farmers delivering long-term energy security with more renewables.
At the No 10 Farm to Fork Summit, the Government committed to expand this year’s grant offer for farmers to fund investments in barn-top solar. This will first be available for cattle farmers wishing to install solar alongside wider upgrades to their calf housing as part of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway.
Government have also announced the Farming Investment Fund, which supports farmers investing in technologies with improved energy-use efficiency and use of renewable energy, and have provided funding for the Farming Innovation Programme which offers support to industry-driven research into innovative technologies. Government is also exploring renewable energy sources such as capturing methane on farms for use as biogas and green fuels for farm machinery, supporting further research into innovative new technologies.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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