Farmers may not know more about the Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs) untiol February, admits the Environment Secretary.

Dr Therese Coffey today (Thursday) said that the Government’s review of the new payment scheme may come as late as February.

She faced pressure from the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, with peers speaking of the “increasingly vexed” issue for the farming community due to “unconscionably” long delays.

Ms Coffey said: “I think we’ll be able to make some announcements soon on ELMs early in the new year to get that properly underway so that we can, not going to pretend hit the ground running, but there’ll be much clearer pathways alongside the environmental improvement plan on where we see the need to prioritise.”

Pressed on whether this would mean January, she said: “I’m hoping we can get there. It may be February.”

This delay comes the same day that the Country Land & Business Association’s (CLA) president, Mark Tufnell, told ministers that rural communities are “running out of patience” with the government.

Soil Association Head of Farming Policy, Gareth Morgan, said: “We remain frustrated at the continued government failure to give farmers confidence that previous promises to reward sustainable food production will be upheld.

“Delays and rumours of watering down plans to reward farmers for protecting the environment must end now.

"This policy is crucial at a time when our food system is in crisis – fertiliser, feed and energy costs for farmers are skyrocketing, wildlife populations are in freefall, shoppers are being priced out of sustainable food, and climate change is escalating at an unprecedented rate."

The ELMS payments, which cover England, will replace the EU subsidies regime for agriculture which made payments mostly on the basis of the amount of land farmed.

The new programme was intended to pay farmers with taxpayers’ money for public goods, such as wildlife restoration, clean air and water, and healthy soils.