Senior Defra officials were urged to provide more support to upland farmers during a meeting at Westmorland County Show.

NFU members highlighted the financial losses of more than £10m in support to upland farmers in the Lake District as a result of changes from the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) to Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs).

Farmers met Defra farming and countryside director Janet Hughes, Paul Caldwell, chief executive of the Rural Payments Agency and Tamara Finkelstein, permanent secretary at Defra at the show in Cumbria, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday last week.

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NFU deputy president David Exwood said: “It was great to have the Defra director and other officials on stand at the county show meeting members to hear from them direct about the pressures on farm.

“It was alarming to report that our upland farmers here in the Lake District have seen direct payments reduce by more than £10million in income – that’s just in one year, as there are very limited opportunities to access new ELM schemes. This is vital money that is not going back into the local economy and also caring for the environment.

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“Our upland farmers play an important role producing home grown food while also being stewards of some of the country’s most cherished landscapes, they urgently need financial support to survive.

“While NFU campaigning has led to positive increases in the number of options available for upland farmers under Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), there still remains challenges about how hill farming businesses will be profitable through this transition period and what is Defra’s long term vision for Lake District farmers.”

The NFU is calling on a mechanism to allow farmers with existing environmental schemes, such as Higher Level Schemes (HLS) or Higher Tier Countryside agreements, to transfer over into these new schemes so they can work better for their farm.

This is why the NFU is asking for an uplift in HLS payments to help close the funding gap and prevent those who have been pro-active in engaging in agri-environmental schemes from being penalised.

Many farmers have existing agreements which come to an end in December 2024. At present there is no opportunity for them to start applying for a new agreement; farmers can only apply for a new scheme when the old one expires.

The meeting came as Environment Secretary Steve Reed declined to say whether farmers will lose out on £130m of funding which the previous government failed to spend in 2023/24.

At the Commons despatch box, he said he “would be in deep trouble with the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rachel Reed)” if he unveils his department’s budget plans before October 30.

NFU North uplands chair Dave Stanners who farms in Northumberland, said of the meeting at Westmorland Show: “It was pleasing to hear that Defra has listened to some of our pleas and is looking to form an uplands working group to address these problems and ensure upland businesses are part of the solution to Defra’s environmental ambitions.

“We also need the government to truly value UK food security by delivering a renewed and enhanced multi-annual agriculture budget of £5.6bn on October 30, something we called for on Back British Farming day. This budget is essential in giving Britain’s farmers and growers the confidence they desperately need to invest for the future and deliver sustainable, affordable homegrown food while creating more jobs and delivering for nature, energy security and climate-friendly farming.”