LOCAL MP and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hill Farming, Tim Farron, is leading calls for the Government to protect family farmers by maintaining current farm payments until the new post-Brexit support scheme is rolled out in full.
Tim has coordinated a cross-party group to warn that Government plans to remove farm incomes before providing an equivalent replacement risks “long term damage to British agriculture.”
In a letter to the Agriculture Secretary, George Eustice, the cross party group of Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative MPs call for farmers to be protected during the transition or else the “beautiful landscape of the UK will be damaged irrevocably.”
The National Farmers’ Union have calculated that livestock farmers, for example, “will have lost between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of their income by 2024 as a result of these reductions”.
Tim said: “Fears are growing that farmers could lose half their money in the next four years, threatening to drive thousands of family farmers out of business.
“Paying farms to deliver environmental goods is a step in the right direction, but if farms have been forced to close by the Government then there will be no one to restore our peat bogs, build natural flood protections or improve the quality of our waterways.
“The Conservatives’ plans risk undermining the scheme before it even begins. They must think again and ensure that current payments are maintained until the new scheme is rolled out in full.”
Text of the cross-party letter
Dear George,
We are writing to highlight our deep concerns about your government’s plans for the transition between the current farming payment system and the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELM) as laid out in the “The Path to Sustainable Farming.”
We welcome the new ELM scheme. We believe that it is vitally important that farm payments are used to reward farmers for providing environmental goods, helping the United Kingdom tackle climate change and restore our much depleted natural environment. However, we believe your plans risk undermining the intended goals before we even get started.
The reports from over the weekend indicate that farmers are expected to lose half their current payments over the next four years. Meanwhile the ELM scheme will not be fully rolled out until 2028. This phase-out plan risks driving many small family farmers – the foundational unit that makes British farming the best in the world – out of businesses or opting for retirement. Losing half of their money would be deeply concerning for any business, not least for businesses that provide the food for our table.
Farmers, particularly family farmers, are the guardians of our countryside. They are vital if we are to restore our peat bogs, improve the quality of our waterways, build natural flood protections and encourage the recovery of species across the country. They are also the reason why millions flock to areas like the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales every year – our landscape looks the way it does because of centuries of care by our farming communities.
Your plans to remove farm incomes before providing an equivalent replacement,risks long term damage to British agriculture. We have to get this right or risk wrecking in just a few years the landscape heritage that has been nurtured over centuries. And once it’s gone it will be nearly impossible to put it right again.
We are calling for you to think again. We support the destination, ELM is a significant improvement on the existing scheme, but the route needs rethinking. Instead of phasing out payments now, they must be maintained until the new scheme is fully available to all. We must work to protect our farmers during this transition, otherwise the new ELM scheme will fail for lack of the partners we need to deliver it, and the beautiful landscape of the UK will be damaged irrevocably.
Yours sincerely,
Tim Farron – Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Farming and Chair of the Hill Farming APPG
Liberal Democrats:
Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)
Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat)
Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat)
Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat)
Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat)
Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat)
Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat)
Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat)
Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat)
Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat)
Labour:
Andrew Gwynne (Labour)
Sarah Champion (Labour)
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour)
Mohammad Yasin (Labour)
Tony Lloyd (Labour)
Rosie Cooper (Labour)
Conservatives:
Gary Streeter (Conservative)
Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative)
Julian Sturdy (Conservative)
Independent:
Claudia Webbe (Independent)
