Energy & Environment

VI-1 certificates removed from all imports of wine to GB by January 1st

On Thursday 16th December, Food Minister Prentis signed into law legislation that removes the requirement for VI-1 certificates on all wine imported to Great Britain from 1st January 2022. This received coverage across national and trade media outlets, including The ...

Updated: Fri Dec 17 2021

Future Farming Podcast: the Farming Investment Fund

In the latest episode of the Future Farming podcast, Programme Director Janet Hughes talks to the policy lead for the Farming Investment Fund, Sarah Evered. Listen to find out how the team designed the fund, what we've learned and what's coming next.

Updated: Wed Dec 15 2021

More opportunities to put your questions to us

We're going to do a monthly Q&A session on The Farming Forum. In this post, I'll share our approach to Q&As and the upcoming themes and dates of future sessions.

Updated: Wed Dec 15 2021

Working together to protect important marine habitats in Studland Bay

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) recently announced the introduction of a voluntary no-anchor zone in Studland Bay Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) In this blog, Chris Graham from MMO's Marine Conservation Team answers questions that came up during the consultation. ...

Updated: Wed Dec 15 2021

Broadwater Brook urban chalk stream restoration

In today's blog we look at how the Environment Agency helped to restore 1km of urban chalk stream in West Sussex. By Gareth Williams, Environment Programme manager Solent and South Downs In order to restore one chalk stream in ...

Updated: Tue Dec 07 2021

US market to open doors to UK lamb from 2022

There has been widespread coverage in the Independent, Express, Evening Standard, City AM, the Scotsman, Press and Journal, as well as others, of our announcement that exports of British lamb to the US market can resume from next year after ...

Updated: Mon Dec 06 2021

Introducing the Moorland and Rough Grazing Standard

I recently joined the Sustainable Farming Incentive team to help develop some of the standards for 2022/23. In particular, those focused on upland farming and moorland management. In this post, I'll share more about the Moorland and Rough Grazing Standard.

Updated: Thu Dec 02 2021

Making the Sustainable Farming Incentive work for tenants

We are developing our new environmental land management schemes so that there is an offer for all farm types. This includes tenants on tenanted land. In this post, I'd like to share how we're designing the Sustainable Farming Incentive so that tenants can access the scheme in a fair and straightforward way.

Updated: Thu Dec 02 2021

Regulating a geological disposal facility to protect the environment

Dr Candida Lean, a Nuclear Waste Assessor at the Environment Agency, reports on our work in West Cumbria and Lincolnshire to share information with communities about the regulation of a geological disposal facility. I've worked at the Environment Agency for ...

Updated: Wed Dec 01 2021

How farmers in protected landscapes are using their funding

You might remember that the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme opened for applications in July. In August, we shared a video made by some of our Protected Landscape colleagues about the sorts of projects that were eligible for funding. In this post, I'd like to share some examples of the things land managers and farmers are doing with their funding.

Updated: Mon Nov 29 2021

Consultation launched on banning single-use plastics

There has been widespread national media coverage including in BBC News Online, Sky News, the Telegraph, The Sun, the Guardian, the Independent, the i, the Times and the Daily Express of our announcement of the launch of a Government consultation ...

Updated: Mon Nov 22 2021

Meet the team: Policy Adviser Emma and her background in agriculture

In this post, Emma Bailey-Beech writes about her background in agriculture and how it led to working on the Future Farming and Countryside Programme. We're grateful to have people in the team with hands-on experience in the farming sector, and can bring it to bear on our work.

Updated: Thu Nov 18 2021

Integrated Marine Management - Working with People for Nature

Marianne Teoh, Senior Integrated Marine Manager, Blue Belt Programme One of the newest recruits to the Blue Belt Team is Marianne Teoh. Marianne is an interdisciplinary scientist and marine manager, who joined us from Fauna & Flora International in Cambodia, ...

Updated: Tue Nov 16 2021

The Farming Investment Fund launches today

I'm pleased to say that the Farming Investment Fund launches today. The fund provides grants to farmers, growers, and foresters (including related contractors) so that they can invest in the things they need to improve productivity and enhance the natural environment. In this post, I'll share how you can apply and find out more.

Updated: Tue Nov 16 2021