By Anna Burdett Farming and rural affairs editor

Last updated 11:03, Friday, 10 October 2008

Cumbria's hill farming crisis has prompted the launch of an inquiry into the future of Britain’s uplands communities.

Stuart Burgess

Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked the rural advocate Stuart Burgess to launch the £250,000 inquiry, which will make policy recommendations to help secure a future for these disadvantaged areas.

It will analyse the effects of Common Agriculture Police (CAP) reform and EU rural policy and consider the wide range of issues that have put hill farming in crisis.

This could include reshaping agricultural environment schemes to better reflect the importance of farmers’ maintenance of upland landscapes.

Dr Burgess said: “I’m quietly confident that if I came up with some really good recommendations that they will be acted upon.”

He said the inquiry would aim to put the Government in London in touch with the long-term problems facing hill farmers and upland landscapes. The inquiry was launched at the North West Rural Affairs Forum held in Kendal yesterday.

Dr Burgess said: “My visit to Cumbria last year, to see first-hand the impacts of livestock movement restrictions on hill farmers and the wider economy, revealed a much wider set of concerns and inter-related issues regarding the future of upland areas.”

He added: “The inquiry will aim to identify and evaluate the key drivers of change in the upland communities of England, and to develop and promote realistic policy recommendations that enable and equip these communities to move towards more secure, economically prosperous and sustainable futures.”

A panel of commissioners will consider the evidence gathered by the inquiry over the next year. They will draw up recommendations for the Government.

An appeal will be made to farmers and other members of upland communities to contribute their views to the investigation.

Some members of the community will be approached directly by researchers and there will be regional hearings in the New Year.

The livelihoods of many hill farmers became unsustainable with the decoupling of support payments from farm production. The situation is expected to worsen when the Hill Farm Allowance ceases next year.

As farmers have reduced sheep numbers, where once there were problems with over grazing, many argue that under grazing is now threatening the future of upland landscapes like the Lake District.

Dr Burgess will visit Caldbeck today to gather evidence.