How comparable schemes have developed
What other Landscape Recovery projects and predecessor programmes at landscape scale have achieved — and what their experience honestly tells us.
’s programme is relatively new and Ure Dales is an early-stage project. The evidence base from completed or progressed schemes is limited but growing. This page summarises what is publicly available and what it honestly supports for Ure Dales.
1. DEFRA published LRS pilot evidence
The DEFRA LRS pilot consists of 22 projects spanning 500–10,000 ha, with payment rates broadly in the £200–£700/ha/yr range at early stage. Consent-based governance has been cited positively in DEFRA-published evidence.
Payment ranges are broadly consistent with comparable HLS programmes. Consent-based consortium governance has been cited as effective in early pilot evaluation.
No first-cohort LRS project has completed a full monitoring cycle. Long-term ecological outcomes and credit revenues are not yet evidenced at LRS scale.
gov.uk — Landscape Recovery collection
2. Four comparable project types
- Area
- ~80,000 ha
- Holdings
- Multiple landscape partnership
- Peat condition improvement
- Measurable at 10yr
- Carbon credits
- Peatland Code validated
- Governance
- Charity-led (RSPB / Natural England)
- Holdings
- 11 farms
- Hay meadow recovery
- Documented improvement
- Payment rates
- £200–£450/ha/yr (HLS)
- Coordination
- Informal cluster; no shared SLE
- Key learning
- Formal structure would have improved market access
- PIU timeline
- 2–4 years post-restoration
- PCU timeline
- 5–8 years
- Carbon income
- Builds slowly; strongest from Year 6+
- Key learning
- Early restoration investment yields strongest long-term credit volume
- Premium above commodity
- 15–30% (beef/lamb)
- Time to first sale
- 6–18 months post-certification
- Key learning
- Premium requires active buyer relationship, not just certification
- Relevance
- P4L recognised at Gold trustmark tier
3. Honest assessment
| Claim | Evidence status |
|---|---|
| DEFRA payments £200–£900/ha achievable | Supported by pilot data and comparable HLS rates. |
| Peat condition measurably improves within 10 years | Well evidenced from multiple UK programmes. |
| Carbon credits can be generated from peatland restoration | Well evidenced — Peatland Code is validated; timeline from established experience. |
| Premium market access generates 15–30% above commodity | Evidenced from P4L and equivalent networks; requires active buyer relationship. |
| Full LRS income stack (DEFRA + credits + market) at Ure Dales scale | Not yet directly evidenced; individual components are separately evidenced. |
| Consortium governance at this scale works well | Supported by DEFRA pilot evidence; YWT's track record directly relevant. |