THE National Trust has pledged support for Cumbria hill farmers as debate swirls over the future of farming after Brexit.

In a speech to the Uplands Alliance in Cumbria, director general Dame Helen Ghosh said livestock farming would remain at the heart of the organisation's plans for managing upland areas.

Tenant farmers are essential partners in helping restore the health of the natural environment in the uplands, she said.

Hill farming faces a range of problems, including pressure on incomes, increased flood risk and - with the vote to leave the European Union - the loss of subsidies paid through the Europe-wide Common Agricultural Policy.

Some conservationists have called for "rewilding" in the uplands, taking away sheep and returning the landscape to more "natural" habitats.

The National Trust has set out its ideas for payments to farmers post-Brexit, in which taxpayers' money would only pay for public goods, such as wildlife protection, sustainably produced food, reducing flooding and improving soils.

But Dame Helen said the trust had been surprised by the reaction to its decision to buy farmland but not an adjoining farmhouse at Thorneythwaite Farm, Borrowdale in the Lake District, which prompted fears it would no longer be farmed.

She said suggestions the move showed the trust was losing its commitment to upland farming "could not be further from the truth".

The trust says it is actively exploring areas that could help secure a sustainable economic future for upland farming, such as focusing on high-quality livestock that commands a higher price.

The organisation is also looking at how the heritage of the uplands could receive public funding, and new markets for services such as clean water, storing carbon and producing renewable energy.

Dame Helen told the meeting: "While there are some big challenges and - yes, threats - I am much more in the camp that believes that there is an unprecedented opportunity for the uplands post-Brexit.

"If we work together we can grab the chance to make their future more sustainable than it has ever been."