CLA North team & members hosts RPA Board visit

The CLA North, with help from member hosts Lord Middleton (Birdsall House, Malton) and farmer Andrew Wilson (Brickyard Farm, Slingsby), facilitated a visit by the Rural Payments Agency Board. The Board was accompanied by Paul Caldwell, CEO of the RPA and also a Board member.)

The aim of the visit was for Board members to familiarise themselves with the views of farmers in their day to day experiences generally, and more specifically on their issues in interacting with the RPA and other government agencies.

Some of the topics under discussion included:

Agricultural Transition Programme – BPS reduction, replacement income streams, new entrants and retirement programmes.

Farming Productivity Funding – including slurry investment fund, animal health and welfare pathway.

Environmental Land Management (or ELM) – Sustainable Farming Incentive, evolution of the Farming Resilience Programme, the introduction and roll-out of Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recover opportunities. These are part of the ATP

Private Sector Natural Capital Investment - Carbon Trading & Biodiversity Net Gain

The RPA Board and Paul Caldwell reflected positively on this visit and took away actions for improvement, for example how to bridge the gaps between Defra’s (and associated agencies’) policies and the more technical payment system of the RPA. The latter was generally viewed positively by Lord Middleton and Andrew Wilson.