Funding model will help Welsh farmers to the tune of £5.2m
A£5.2m cash boost for Welsh farmers as part of a new UKwide funding model has been announced by the UK Government.
Following the recommendations of an independent review led by Lord Bew, the UK Government will allocate £5.2m of new funding for Welsh farmers until 2022 and create a more tailored funding formula under the UK Government’s funding commitment for this Parliament.
Lord Bew’s review, announced last year, looked at what factors should determine the distribution of socalled ‘convergence’ funding – additional Common Agricultural Policy funding allocated to the UK between 2014 and 2020 to make payment rates more equal between EU Member States – to farmers over the next two years.
Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said: “The findings from this review build on the UK Government’s commitment to deliver for Welsh farmers, following the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Shervington Farm in Newport.
“I am delighted to confirm that we will be accepting the funding recommendations of the review, and that Welsh farmers will receive over £5m in new funding over the next two years.
“This is a prime example of how leaving the EU will provide us with the opportunity to shape our own policies which better represent the people we serve, ensuring Welsh farmers get a fairer deal in all parts of Wales.”
The new formula to distribute funding across the UK will reward land that previously received less CAP funding per hectare than the EU average.
This means the support of the Pillar 1 budget will be tilted slightly towards those who farm in challenging environments, such as upland areas.
Lord Bew’s recommendations aim to address the concerns of farmers and either maintain or increase funding for farmers in other parts of the UK for the 2020 and 2021 scheme years.
This includes:
■ Agriculture funding for 2020-22 should be maintained in England and Northern Ireland and increased in Wales and Scotland. This means an overall funding uplift of £56.59m will be new money allocated by the Treasury;
■ convergence funding for 2020-22 should be divided according to land across the UK that previously received less CAP funding per hectare than the EU average;
■ the “per-hectare” approach is not suitable for future farm support budgets;
■ that the budget should reflect the challenges facing farms operating in difficult environments, such as our upland areas;
■ administrations across the UK engage collectively to agree principles for allocation of agriculture funding after 2022; and
■ governments in all parts of the UK recognise the critical value of farming by protecting, if not enhancing, future agriculture funding – particularly in the context of EU Exit uncertainty.
A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: “Lord Bew has done a great job in reviewing issues around allocation of agriculture funds across the UK to ensure fair distribution and we welcome the additional funding his report will bring to the agricultural sector in Wales as a result.
“We would like to thank Wales’ independent panel member Rebecca Williams for her hard work in contributing to the report.”
However, FUW president Glyn Roberts said that while welcomed, Scotland had a secured a far more favourable funding deal with £160m as a top-up payment from the UK Government, as well as a £51.4m boost in convergence funding.
Mr Roberts said: “There can be absolutely no doubt that direct support, which underpins safe, topquality food production, must be maintained to avoid causing irreparable damage to Wales and of course the UK as a whole.
“As such, we welcomed the decision to set up a review of allocations based on environmental, agricultural and socio-economic factors, and the top up of £5.2m for Wales means that as such our budget will be maintained until 2022.
“However, the FUW has long argued that funding needs to be allocated fairly and giving Scotland an extra £160m, could cause market distortion on an unprecedented scale and is extremely unfair on Welsh farmers.”
The union president said in 2017 Scottish farm businesses received an average Pillar 1 payment of £23,971, which was more than 30% higher than the UK average of £18,306, and 65% higher than the Welsh average of £14,568.
He added: “As such, this reallocation of funding is likely to exacerbate differences between farm businesses in different nations which must compete in the same marketplace.
“Funding allocations like this must not be a precedent for future,” said Glyn Roberts.
Whilst the FUW fully recognises the Less Favoured nature of 85% of Scottish land, the union said it was worth noting in this context that Scottish farmers receive targeted Less Favoured Area support from the CAP Pillar 2 budget, which farmers in Wales do not receive, despite 80% of Welsh land being categorised as Less Favoured.
Mr Roberts said: “Overall this is not good news for farmers in Wales by comparison and it begs the question if this is purely a ploy to buy Scottish votes ahead of the potential General Election.”
NFU Cymru expressed relief that the UK Government has committed to securing the Welsh farming budget for the years 2020-2022.
NFU Cymru President John Davies said: “At a time of unprecedented uncertainty for Welsh farming, the news that, for the time being, the Welsh farming budget is safeguarded is to be welcomed.
“However, we must not forget that with UK politics in such a precarious position, the long-term security of budgets that Welsh agriculture requires to help build a farming policy that meets our ambition for growth, is lacking.
“Just after the referendum NFU Cymru set out a number of key principles for a post-Brexit farming policy, and one of those principles centred around ensuring that Welsh farming remains competitive with the rest of the UK, EU and globally.
“This announcement, which will see Scottish agriculture get a significant injection of additional money, has the potential to create distortion in the UK market place.”
John Davies concluded: “NFU Cymru will now seek to meet with Welsh Government at the earliest opportunity to ensure that the additional support pledged under the Lord Bew Review is targeted at active family farming businesses.”
The findings from this review build on the UK Government’s commitment to deliver for Welsh farmers ALUN CAIRNS