Defra visit at Westmorland Show

The CLA hosted a meeting at the Westmorland Show where a senior team from Defra led by Tamara Finkelstein, Permanent Secretary at Defra and Janet Hughes, Programme Director for the Future Farming and Countryside Programme.

They were accompanied by Paul Caldwell, Chief Executive at Rural Payment Agency to explain their progress on payments to farmers under the ELMS schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)

The delegation were introduced by Gavin Lane, CLA Deputy President. Janet explained her role and stressed her intention to improve regulation in its widest sense, to make it more user friendly and efficient. Similarly, to improve the upland offer within SFI.

She went on to discuss some of the new ministerial team in Defra, describing Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner as being very passionate about rural issues and the Secretary of State, Steve Reed’s determination to co-design solutions with rural communities.

She said that within the team there was an acknowledgement that ‘food security’ equates with ‘national security’ and a determination to ‘make it fair’ with clarity, stability and transparency. Janet went on to say that there were to be no dramatic changes and that the aim is to make ELMS work.

Janet pre-empted any question on the budget by saying that no decision had been taken and that speculation was pointless. In the meantime, schemes continue to be rolled out.

Higher Tier Stewardship now has an expanded offer and some options are now part of SFI. There has been a big jump in payments. The new rules for Higher Tier are close to publication.

Gavin Lane, raising the Defra under-spend, then facilitated a Q&A session. Janet explained it due to a lag in payments and the increase in uptake.

A member raised the issue of complexity which Janet acknowledged. Simon Bainbridge suggested:

1. Hybrid schemes
2. Increase the overall budget – no decrease
3. Pay Higher Tier quarterly

Janet’s responses to these were:

1. Trying to speed up payment
2. Payments are going quarterly
3. Decisions on levels of payments still to be made

Tamara and Paul then arrived late so there was a pause for their introduction. Tamara promised ‘change for the better’. She offered more commitment to the long term plan and stressed the relationship between farming and the wider community. Tamara also explained the case that she made to the Treasury over the budget in respect of the spending review.

John Geldard then spoke about the farming community and the benefits they provide. A land agent from GSC Grays made a plea for greater clarity as he and his team struggle to understand the schemes, what chance will individual hill farmers have?

Wes Johnson, the principal of Myerscough College underlined the importance of building both carbon literacy and long term food security in the sector. David Bliss added that we need to balance ‘farm and environment.’

Paul conclude the session by offering RPA seminars at Myerscough.