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Country Land and Business Association

Managing the Rural Environment

Managing the Rural Environment

The environment is an important issue for the CLA because all of our 38,000 members impact upon it in their day to day businesses and it impacts on them in varying ways as providers of fibre, food, fuel, game, habitats, landscapes, minerals, rural tourism, timber, land and buildings.


NEWS - CLA concerned about recovery of Organic Entry Level Stewardship conversion payments

The CLA has expressed its concern that Natural England has been instructed by European Auditors to review all OELS conversion payments made on agreements pre-dating 2007. Natural England says 1,600 agreements are being reviewed. It is estimated 50 of the agreements have been overpaid, in some instances up to £25,000.

The affected OELS agreement holders have either received double conversion payments on their eligible land or conversion payments on land not eligible for payments.

Natural England will telephone affected customers to advise them that they will be recovering overpayments or ‘topping’ up payments where applicants have not received their conversion aid. Affected customers will then receive a letter detailing the recovery and OELS applicants are able to appeal on the grounds of ‘force majeure’. All customers affected will have a named contact that they can discuss their individual circumstances with. Those affected by these changes should be contacted within the next fortnight.

The CLA have insisted that all affected agreements must be carefully reviewed by Natural England to determine whether the payment can be ‘written-off’ following the Rural Payments Agency(RPA)/European guidelines for overpayments. The CLA is also working hard to insist that all remittance advice slips sent from the RPA have agreement references on to enable land managers to correctly assign the right payments to the right agreement.

Main issues

  • Climate Change
  • Water Quality
  • Water Resources
  • Soil
  • Flood and Coastal Defence
  • Voluntary Initiative
  • Waste Management and Fly-Tipping
  • Agri-Environment schemes
  • Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
  • Hill Farming Allowance (HFA) and Less Favoured Areas (LFA)
  • Designated areas, e.g. SSSIs – Special Sites of Scientific Interest
  • Cross compliance

CLA Environment Guidance Notes

CLA Government Responses


Links to external websites

LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) - www.leaf.org.uk

Defra: www.defra.gov.uk

Environment Agency: www.environment-agency.gov.uk

Plain language information for businesses on environmental legislation, and how to comply with it: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/netregs

Natural England: www.naturalengland.org.uk

Voluntary Initiative: www.voluntaryinitiative.org.uk

Environment sensitive farming: http://www.environmentsensitivefarming.co.uk/

Farm Wildlife: Events, Case Studies and Discussion Forums for farmers helping wildlife on their land:  www.farmwildlife.info

Guidance for Environmental Stewardship agreement holders within the NVZ's