Farmers’ EU subsidies to be ditched... but they’ll get cash for protecting countryside
THE EU’s wasteful farming subsidy scheme will be ditched in a favour of a system that rewards farmers and landowners for protecting the countryside, Michael Gove pledged yesterday.
In his first keynote speech as Environment Secretary, Mr Gove said the Common Agricultural Policy was ‘bureaucratic’ and a post-Brexit system of support for agriculture would put ‘environmental protection first’.
Under the CAP, £3billion is handed out to landowners in the UK every year, largely calculated on how much they farm. In total, 39 recipients get £1million or more.
Ministers have pledged to maintain the existing level of funding until 2022. But in his first major speech after his return to the Cabinet, Mr Gove said the Government would only carry on ‘generously supporting farmers’ after this time if the environmental benefits were clear. He said the UK should take the opportunity of Brexit to reward farmers for environmental protection. This new post-CAP scheme could include payments for woodland creation, habitat protection, caring for treasured landscapes and higher animal welfare.
‘The Common Agricultural Policy rewards size of landholding ahead of good environmental practice, all too often puts resources in the hands of the already wealthy rather than into the common good of our shared natural environment, and encourages patterns of land use which are wasteful of natural resources,’ Mr Gove said.
Critics of CAP have complained that wealthy UK landowners are given subsidies of up to £3million a year. The issue was highlighted last year when it emerged that taxpayers are paying more than £400,000 a year to subsidise a farm, where a billionaire Saudi prince breeds racehorses.
The farm – near Newmarket – of Khalid Abdullah al Saud, owner of the legendary racehorse Frankel, is among the top recipients of farm grants.
In a wide-ranging speech in Woking, Surrey, yesterday, Mr Gove promised a ‘ Green Brexit’ and said he had ‘no intention’ of weak- ening environmental protections put in place by the EU.
But he said Britain was ‘ more than capable’ of writing its own laws to protect the environment.
He said the scandal over diesel emissions had exposed the EU’s ‘inadequate’ testing processes.
Mr Gove also took a swipe at US President Donald Trump – whom he interviewed for a newspaper while out of government – for with- drawing from the Paris climate agreement. He said he ‘deeply regrets’ Mr Trump’s approach, adding: ‘I sincerely hope the recent indications that the President may be minded to think again do signal a change of heart.
‘International co- operation to deal with climate change is critical if we’re to safeguard our planet’s future and the world’s second biggest generator of carbon emis- sions cannot simply walk out of the room when the heat is on.’
Mr Gove added: ‘It’s our planet too and America needs to know that we can only resolve this problem together.’
Landowners welcomed the speech. The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said it was right to reward landowners who ‘manage land in ways that deliver public benefits’. But Meurig Raymond, president of the National Farmers’ Union, said farmers needed help to protect the food supply. He said it was important to maintain ‘current levels of public investment’ to keep farms competitive.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron accused Mr Gove of breaking a promise during the referendum campaign to maintain farming payments.
‘Wasteful of natural resources’