CLA Webinar: Building Trust with the Rural Payments Agency

In our latest webinar, members will hear from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) on their new approach to the administration of the new schemes available throughout the course of the agricultural transition.

The task for the RPA has never been more challenging. The RPA is responsible for issuing payments, conducting farm visits, and ensuring scheme compliance. Whilst historically they have been responsible for administering schemes such as BPS and Countryside Stewardship, there is now a much longer list of funding schemes which have been made available to farmers and land managers. The RPA will be responsible for administering the vast majority of these schemes, such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive and the farming productivity schemes. How this is managed will have a critical impact on scheme take up and reputation.

In this webinar, members will hear from the RPA's Head of External Affairs on their new, less punitive approach to scheme administration, and to hear how this is being put into practice.

If you have accessed, or wish to access the majority of the government funded agricultural schemes (i.e. BPS, CS, SFI), you will benefit from the insight provided by this webinar

The webinar will cover:
• Why and how the RPA’s new approach is going to be critical to building trust, changing their reputation and boosting the uptake of the schemes. This will include examples of how this has already been put into practice.
• Hear how the RPA is planning on coping with administering all the additional schemes over the course of the agricultural transition.
• The chance to ask RPA what you want to know during the Q&A.

Learn more about our speakers:

Gavin Lane – Vice President, CLA (Chair)
Gavin grew up on his family farm on the edge of King's Lynn in Norfolk. At 25, he started farming on a contract farming arrangement with his father and now owns and farms land on two separate arable farms in Norfolk, both with large countryside stewardship schemes and using regenerative farming practices. He is involved with a family residential property portfolio and with his wife, Jane, has diversified into a holiday cottage letting business. Within the CLA, he was chair of Business & Rural Economy Committee (BREC), chair of the Norfolk Branch and was previously chair of Agriculture and Land Use and also sat on Policy Committee.
He has also chaired the Education Committee of the Worshipful Company of Farmers and is a Nuffield Scholar.

Sandy Kapila – Head of External Affairs, RPA (Speaker)
As the Head of External Affairs, Sandy joined the Rural Payments Agency in January 2012 from Defra, where he spent 14 years in various roles. Across his career he has developed experiences in Programme and Project Management; HR; Governmental Finance; Policy Design and Implementation; Financial, Corporate, and Information Governance; Customer and Stakeholder Relations; Reputation Management; Innovation and Creative Problem Solving. Sandy is a husband; a dad of two boys and an ardent Reading FC fan.

Cameron Hughes – Land Use Policy Adviser, CLA (Speaker)
As the Land Use Policy Advisor in the Land Use Team, Cameron has a particular focus on agricultural policy, including BPS, livestock and arable farming, farming systems and standards and resource protection. Prior to joining the CLA in 2020, Cameron worked as a land agent in the south east for Carter Jonas and previously the National Trust. Cameron grew up in east Hampshire on the South Downs.