The National Trust has joined the chorus of groups demanding far-reaching policy reform as Britain exits the EU, in order to restore the environment and tackle plummeting biodiversity.  

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1. Public money must only pay for public goods: Like LWA earlier this week, the Trust has called for an end to area-based farm payments.
2. It should be unacceptable to harm nature but easy to help it: The Trust wants 100% of subsidy payments to be dependent on meeting ‘green’ farming standards covering wildlife, soil and water stewardship.
3. Nature should be abundant everywhere: Going against Defra secretary Andrea Leadsom’s desire to let “[Farmers] with the big fields do the sheep, and those with the hill farms do the butterflies,” the Trust wants any new system to support nature in the lowlands as well as the uplands, arguing that people in towns and cities also need access to wildlife and a healthy environment.
4. Long-term, large-scale solutions: The Trust notes that nature doesn’t respect farm boundaries and needs joined up habitats on a landscape scale to thrive; it wants to see farmers and landowners working together for subsidies allocated on a farm-by-farm basis.
5. Public payments should go to the best performing farmers: Farmers that deliver the most public benefit, should get the most public funds.
6. Public money should fund sustainable solutions: Like LWA, the Trust said public investments in science should go to knowledge-based rather than product-focused solutions to the challenges farmers face. It also wants the government to help develop new markets that reward farmers for storing carbon, preventing floods and promoting biodiversity.