The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Payments blow for hill farmers
Hill farmers’ worst fears were confirmed in the Scottish Parliament yesterday when it was revealed £65 million of payments owed to producers on the country’s poorest land would not be paid in March as usual.
Rural Affairs secretary Richard Lochhead admitted the ongoing difficulties with the new basic payments scheme meant Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme (LFASS) payments would be “delayed for a few weeks”.
Pressed to give a timetable for the payment of payments, Mr Lochhead said he was unable to do so, but that he would be meeting stakeholders next week.
He confirmed that “approaching 50%” of farmers and crofters have now been paid their first instalment of EU basic payment funds but admitted the failure of the IT system to work properly was having a knock-on impact on other schemes.
Scottish Conservative rural spokesman Alex Fergusson described the news as yet another blow to increasingly hard pressed sheep farmers.
He added: “Not only have they had to extend their bank borrowing because of the Scottish Government’s complete failure to process their basic payment scheme applications, they will now have to borrow even more to make up for late payments under LFASS – payments that have always been made in March.
“The Scottish Government has hidden behind the ‘complexity’ of the new Basic Payment Scheme for too long.
“It has spent £200 million on a hopeless IT system, despite having been warned about the problems it would cause as long ago as 2014.
“Yet, it is Scotland’s farmers that are having to pay the price for Richard Lochhead’s incompetence – and that price will now be even heavier given his admission that LFASS payments won’t be made ‘for weeks’.”