By Tim Hirsch BBC environment correspondent

Time for change for farmers

The government has frankly admitted that its system of giving help to rural areas and communities is confusing and bureaucratic - and it has promised radical change.

Agencies will be slimmed down and merged, and many more schemes could be run at regional and local level instead of by the men and women in Whitehall.

Environmental groups have cautiously welcomed the proposals, but they are warning that protection of wildlife must not be diluted by the creation of a new wide-ranging body to deal with rural issues.

Ministers have been responding to a report by the Labour industrialist Lord Haskins, who was asked to take a critical look at the working of the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the agencies it funds.

Inspections

That report is scathing in its analysis, complaining of confused responsibilities and poor co-ordination between the plethora of grant schemes and regulations affecting people and businesses in rural areas.

For example, farmers can face up to 16 different inspections from various people turning up with clipboards to monitor their activities. Lord Haskins says this kind of thing needs to be radically simplified.

Defra has been warned it needs to change in Lord Haskin's report

And he warns that without major changes, Defra will simply be unable to cope with the changes to the European Common Agricultural Policy which will see far more money channelled into schemes to encourage environment-friendly farming.

Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett has accepted the broad recommendations of the report, and detailed proposals for change will be announced next year.

At the heart of the reforms will be the creation of a single, new land management agency which will have a wide range of functions from nature protection to the handing out of grants to farmers.

She has not accepted Lord Haskins' proposal that the Countryside Agency should be abolished, but it will be massively cut back with much of its responsibility for things like National Parks and public access to land going into the new body.

Reassurance

Mrs Beckett was keen to quash suggestions that this would dilute the independent and often critical advice which the government gets from English Nature on issues such as GM crops and developments like roads and airports.

"I attach huge importance to independent advice from my department's agencies and partners. I do not intend to lose that advice," said Mrs Beckett.

That reassurance has been welcomed by English Nature itself and by environmental groups, but they are still concerned that wildlife protection could lose out under the new arrangements.

The chairman of English Nature, Sir Martin Doughty, said "The proposed changes must not dilute English Nature's current wide-ranging role or marginalise our marine and urban conservation responsibilities. Any disruption to the services we carry out will make it difficult to meet national and international wildlife conservation obligations."

We need a fully independent watchdog that has the environment and the conservation of wildlife at its heart Phil Rothwell, RSPB

Phil Rothwell of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said that in principle, the creation of a single body to co-ordinate rural policy was a good idea but warned that wildlife protection must not be compromised by an administrative reshuffle.

"We need a fully independent watchdog that has the environment and the conservation of wildlife at its heart," he said.

The reforms are likely to take several years to implement and will mean major disruption and uncertainty for thousands of civil servants.

If they are successful, people in the countryside should find it much easier to navigate the bewildering rules now attached to the schemes designed to help their communities and landscapes.