The
Committee consisted of the following
Members:Chairman:
Mr.
David
Wilshire Binley,
Mr. Brian (Northampton, South)
(Con) Crabb,
Mr. Stephen (Preseli Pembrokeshire)
(Con)
Cryer,
Mrs. Ann (Keighley)
(Lab) Dorrell,
Mr. Stephen (Charnwood)
(Con)
Ennis,
Jeff (Barnsley, East and Mexborough)
(Lab)
Farron,
Tim (Westmorland and Lonsdale)
(LD)
Foster,
Michael Jabez (Hastings and Rye)
(Lab)
Gardiner,
Barry (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs)
Godsiff,
Mr. Roger (Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath)
(Lab)
Kilfoyle,
Mr. Peter (Liverpool, Walton)
(Lab)
Norris,
Dan (Wansdyke) (Lab)
Raynsford,
Mr. Nick (Greenwich and Woolwich)
(Lab) Rosindell,
Andrew (Romford)
(Con)
Watts,
Mr. Dave (Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty's
Treasury)
Wiggin,
Bill (Leominster)
(Con)
Williams,
Mr. Roger (Brecon and Radnorshire)
(LD)
Wright,
David (Telford) (Lab) Glen
McKee, Committee Clerk
attended the Committee Second
Standing Committee on Delegated
LegislationTuesday 16
May
2006[Mr.
David Wilshire in the
Chair]Hill Farm Allowance Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006, No. 225)
4.30
pm Bill
Wiggin (Leominster) (Con): I beg to
move, That the
Committee has considered the Hill Farm Allowance Regulations 2006 (S.I.
2006, No. 225). How
nice it is to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Wilshire. I
welcome the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, the hon. Member for Brent, North (Barry Gardiner), to his new
role My series of questions on this important subject is a gentle
introduction. At the
beginning of March when we prayed against this statutory instrument,
despite our warnings the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs was still promising that farm payments would be made and that
problems would be resolved. The Opposition have prayed against these
regulations because we are not convinced by the benefits that are
offered to Englands hill farmers in the long term. We are also
concerned about the future support to hill farmers and, following on
from the Rural Payments Agency and the single farm payment fiasco, have
reservations about the administration of the hill farm
allowance.
Those of us
who are familiar with hill farms, along with the rest of the farming
community, would be grateful if the Minister could assure us that in
England we will not see a repetition of the closure of the less
favoured area schemes, similar to the Tir Mynydd scheme in Wales, which
his Labour colleagues in the Welsh Assembly recently decided to
terminate. Regulation 5(a) states that the hill farm allowance should
not be paid unless a claimant undertakes a five-year commitment to use
it for agricultural purposes. Is the Minister able to make a five-year
commitment to hill farmers that they will receive a decent
payment?
We are all
aware of the benefits offered by hill farmers. They can help to
preserve the land and support the environment as well as generating
vital revenue into the economy. What discussions has DEFRA
had with the Treasury regarding the continuation of the
£27 million currently available for hill farmers? Considering
the value offered to the taxpayer, can the Minister also give
assurances that the Governments domestic share of the scheme
costs will not be reduced? Last year, hill farmers earned on average
£14,000, which represented a 15 per cent. fall compared with the
previous year. It is £3,000 lower than the average net farm
income. Does the Minister share my concerns that without sufficient
support the benefits of hill farming will be lost?
Staying with payments, which
are dealt with in regulation 7, when will hill farmers receive their
hill farm allowance payments? As I am sure the Minister is all too
aware, hill farmers are suffering from the low
lamb prices over the autumn and winter and are desperate for their
single farm payments and for hill allowances. They need their financial
support and they need it now. Hill farm allowances are not included in
the partial payments. That is unacceptable.
Given that
the consultation on the future for payments to hill farmers will be
closing only on 22 May, does the Minister think that from then until
the end of the year is sufficient time to propose and prepare a new
payment scheme? What changes will be made to the RPA before the new
hill farming payment scheme is implemented? What role will there be for
Natural England under any future arrangements for hill farm
payments? At the
weekend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
the right hon. Member for South Shields (David Miliband), was quoted in
the Western Daily Press as
saying: Increased
priority will also be given to making outstanding payments under the
Hill Farm Allowance (HFA) scheme in recognition of the importance of
HFA payments to those
concerned. He
then went on to blame the delays on previous estimates of payment
timetables going missing. How did these payment timetables go missing
and what will the Minister do to ensure that they do not go missing
again? Does the Minister share the concerns of the Country Land and
Business Association that the failure to make hill farm allowance
payments will lead to a cash flow crisis? Will he pilot any new
proposed hill farm payment schemes prior to a nationwide roll-out? Does
he think that the new agri-environmental policies for the period
2007-13 will be drafted and be approved by the Commission by the end of
the
year? These
points relate to the hill farm allowance and this years
payment. I want to move on and probe the Minister on the future
arrangements for the hill farm allowance. Regulation 9 and schedule 4
make provisions to deal with circumstances in which hill farms are only
partially situated in England. Considering the problems that
cross-border farms have had receiving single farm payments this year,
does the Minister think that a more robust and consistent system is
needed so that a farm will not be split in two for payment
purposes? The present
scheme will be concluded at the end of this year, and there is
currently no replacement ready to come into force on 1 January 2007.
Considering the disastrous implementation of the single farm payment
changes by the previous Minister and Secretary of State at DEFRA and by
the RPA, what representations will the Minister make to ensure that the
same mistakes are not made again and that Englands hill farmers
are not left
penniless? The farming
community now has no confidence in the Governments ability to
push through the desired reforms over the next few months.
DEFRAs handling of the single farm payment and RPA situations
has not changed that view. Does the Minister therefore agree with the
National Farmers Union that the hill farm allowance should continue to
be given to farmers over a two-year transition period, until such time
as a new payment system is fully functional and without fault? What
safeguards will be put in place to ensure that the payment delays
witnessed this year will not happen in the new HFA system? Moreover,
does the RPA have the resources to deliver a new system?
While we
broadly welcome much-needed changes to funding arrangements, we cannot
let the present situation remain unchecked and allow our hill farmers
to wither away into terminal decline. Paragraph 7 of the explanatory
memorandum refers to the future rural development programme. Will hill
farmers be fully supported during its period? Financial assistance
available to hill farmers has plummeted from about £60 million
to £27 million
today. Mr.
Peter Kilfoyle (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab): On the point
about financial assistance, I did not quite catch the amounts that the
hon. Gentleman mentioned earlier. Did he say that £14,000 was
the amount paid to hill
farmers?
Bill
Wiggin: That is the average income of hill farmers. Hill
farmers were receiving a total of £60 million; they are now
getting only £27 million. That is a significant drop. I am not
sure whether the hon. Gentleman has many hill farmers in his
constituency, but I am grateful for his
intervention. 4.37
pm Mr.
Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD): It is a
pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Wilshire. Our
short debate must be set against the background of an increase in farm
borrowings from £9.5 billion to almost £10.5 billion in
one year. Much of that increase can be attributed to the
Governments failure to deliver the single farm payments scheme,
the support to hill farmers and the various environment schemes that
were combined with the payments. The figures give some indication of
the dependence that agriculture still has on support to provide this
country with decent food to eat and to protect the environment and
enable people to enjoy its appearance and recreation
opportunities. Although
the regulations provide less support than hill farmers have previously
enjoyed, they are very welcome and we support them. We wish to make the
point of how important continued support is to hill farmers. The
average age of farmers in this country is about 58 years, and is
probably a good deal higher in the hills. It is difficult to encourage
young people to take up an occupation that is not very well rewarded
financially and in which people have come not to trust the Government
to support them in the future. They do not know what the situation will
be around the corner or next year.
Support for hill farmers is
widely valued by the population, who value the appearance of our hills
and mountains and the designation of national parks and areas of
outstanding natural beauty that often goes with the landscapes that
hill farmers provide. Those landscapes are there not by chance but
because people have put effort and investment into them not only in
this generation but for many generations. One thing is sure: if that
energy were to be dissipated or wrongly directed, we would see quick
changes. For example, one farmer in the Llanthony valley in my
constituency decided not to graze sheep on the hill any more and it has
become so overgrown and dilapidated that people can no longer go there
on foot. A farmer told me that when he was a boy they used to shepherd
there on horse back, and now they cannot even go on
foot.
Bill
Wiggin: It is important that people understand what the
hon. Gentleman means when he says overgrown and
dilapidated? Do they realise what the gorse is like? Will he
say a little more about what happens when grazing
stops?
Mr.
Williams: Yes. When the sheep are not there and do
not graze, there is scrub growth. By anyones judgment and
evaluation the effect on biodiversity is great. Some of the rare birds
found on upland moors and hillsides cannot exist and reproduce when the
scrub takes over.
Although we understand that
there will be changes in the support system for upland farmers, we urge
the Minister this day to guarantee to start off on a good footing with
hill farmers and say that the regulations will be replicated in 2007.
That would put some certainty into the system and into the lives of the
people who do this wonderful work for the country, who are becoming
less and less likely to continue living and working in these
areas. The point made
by the hon. Member for Leominster (Bill Wiggin) was so pertinent: the
confidence that the Government can introduce a new scheme on top of
single farm payments and all the changes that have taken place in the
RPA is very uncertain. The previous Minister put out a consultation
document about future support. Option 1 is not really an option because
we understand that things are going to change and option 4doing
nothing to support hill farmersshould not be an option for the
Minister. We should be interested to know his views on options 2 and 3.
Option 2, to link hill farming support entirely to environmental
schemes, could put some hill farmers in difficulty as they may not be
able to comply with all the requirements in order to be eligible for
that support. Some might not want to put the whole of the farm into an
environmental scheme; there is an agricultural and food production
element to hill farming and some farmers might not want to take that
course. I urge the Minister to let us know his thinking on these
matters so that farmers have some idea how to go forward in
future.
I
congratulate the Minister on his appointment to the post, and I hope to
have the opportunity in future to make my final point, on food
security, to him. Given climate changes, it is not entirely clear where
in the world food will be produced and whether it will be produced in
the same quantities as it is at present. Political instability and the
increased use of agricultural land for biofuels and biomass also have
an effect on food production. How will those considerations be balanced
with the continual need for food to be produced?
It is not prudent for the UK to
depend on the world market to access its food to the extent that it
does now. The hills of this country proved during the second world war
that they can produce a significant amount of food; the Minister would
do well to recognise that and not forget
it. 4.45
pm
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