A farming group has criticised the government’s claim of a near £350m injection into British farming as “not new money”.
Last week Defra announced it would be putting more than £345m into the rural economy in the first week of December, benefiting more than 31,000 farmers, through payments on the Countryside Stewardship Scheme.
However, as confirmed by The Grocer, this is part of a £5bn investment over two years already announced by the government and is not additional funds.
The Country Land and Business Association said “the farming budget is being cut in real terms” as this money is “payments for existing agreements”.
“The launch of the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier scheme is welcome, but the reality is that it is late, applications don’t open until next summer, and the opportunity for farm businesses and the environment is limited by Defra resources,” said CLA president Victoria Vyvyan.
“Meanwhile family farms and businesses face having what profits they make wiped out by Inheritance Tax bills,” she added. “Capital grant schemes have been paused, the budget to promote British food exports has been halved, and the budget to provide advice to farmers entering new environmental land management schemes is being scrapped.”
She added that the government needed to back farmers and landowners with funding and resources.
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