Tree planting: Is the Welsh government 'pricing locals out of the market' for farmland?

By Emily Davies

man in gray hoodie and black pants holding brown cardboard box

Credit: Unsplash

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The Welsh government bought agricultural land for tree planting last year, outbidding local farmers for land in Anglesey.

New information revealed by Plaid Cymru's spokesperson for agriculture and rural affairs, MS Mabon ap Gwynfor, shows that the Welsh government has bought productive agricultural pastureland for its tree planting programme.

Tyn Mynydd on Ynys MΓ΄n (Anglesey) was bought by the government for afforestation, outbidding young locals in the process, according to Plaid Cymru.

Anglesey. Credit: Unsplash

Anglesey. Credit: Unsplash

Mr ap Gwynfor called this "indefensible" and said it is "pushing new entrants out, while also pushing the value of farmland up."

Plaid Cymru said that when they confronted the government with this information, a spokesperson said they'd "like to see the evidence that Natural Resources Wales are blocking out young farmers from things."

Credit: Senedd Cymru

Credit: Senedd Cymru

The Countryside Alliance's Director for Wales, Rachel Evans, said: "We have the Welsh Government purchasing productive farmland when they should be purchasing non-productive land, in order to fulfil their ambition for the National Forest and to increase tree cover in Wales to combat climate change. Planting trees is absolutely fine by us but it has to be the right tree in the right place, for the right effect."

Rachel Evans and Roy Noble at the Royal Welsh Show. Credit: Countryside Alliance

Rachel Evans and Roy Noble at the Royal Welsh Show. Credit: Countryside Alliance

"Our policy makers have now outbid a young farmer in Anglesey. It’s hard enough for young entrants to get into farming but now we have our policy makers purchasing land under their noses. Our policy makers are buying through Natural Resources Wales, who are supposed to be the caretakers of land."

Credit: Unsplash

Credit: Unsplash

The land in Anglesey isn't the first or only example of the Welsh Government buying land for tree planting.

However, Natural Resources Wales said it offers fair market value and avoids competition with other buyers.

"NRW will avoid adversely impacting on business sectors through unfair competition and will work to always secure best value and timely full cost recovery."
NRW Commercial Strategy 2021-2026

It also said that they focus on small parcels of land, not whole farms.

But a farmer who put in a bid for the land said this wasn't the case in Anglesey.

Jac Williams, 28, a farmer from Llanddeiniolen in Gwynedd, told the BBC he was outbid by an offer way above the market value.

While Anglesey might be a one-off situation, it sets a worrying precedent.

The knowledge that their own government might outbid them for land is a frightening idea for many farmers, who are already concerned about companies buying their land for carbon offsetting.

"Welsh land is at a premium, and all good agricultural land needs to be utilised for food production."

- Mabon ap Gwynfor

Credit: Senedd Cymru

Credit: Senedd Cymru

MS Cefin Campbell is a Plaid Cymru politician who has been the Member of the Senedd for the Mid and West Wales region since 2021. 

He said: "Here we have proof that the Welsh Government has bought not just one parcel of land, but 380 acres of agricultural pastureland for the single purpose of tree planting.

 "This is causing us a lot of concern. What you have is the might of corporate companies and the financial might of the Welsh Government pricing local people out of the market."

"This is making it extremely difficult for young people to buy their own farm. They’re just getting outbid.”

This revelation comes at a time when the conflict between farmers and tree planting schemes is getting increasingly heated, with campaigners showing up at the Royal Welsh Show to petition against the issue.

Initially, the anger farmers expressed stemmed from companies outbidding locals for farmland to use for their carbon offsetting schemes, a move branded as greenwashing by Farmer Unions.

Adding to this, an increasing amount of Welsh government grant money has been given to people and companies with addresses outside of Wales, prompting the Conservative Senedd members to propose restricting the money to Wales residents only.

This is because Β£1.3million of Welsh Government funding for tree planting has gone to applicants outside of Wales, according to most recent figures.

More recently, the Welsh Government has proposed that farmers must have 10% of their land be planted with trees to receive subsidy money.

This is in a move to fulfil their goal to plant around 86 million trees over the next nine years to achieve the ambition of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

But relying so heavily on tree planting as the solution to climate change is having an impact on farming, and those that tend the land say they feel ignored.

Mark Morgan, a Welsh farmer, explained that the farming community is becoming defensive:

Jon Parker is the Director for the Welsh branch of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission.

Jon said that a big concern for farmers is how tree planting projects might threaten food security.

He said: "There are these two tensions, between the climate change crisis and food production, as well as the critical issues around maintaining rural Wales."

"Rural Wales is the heartland of the Welsh language, and agriculture is tied to that."

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