At the time of writing this article the draft legislative proposals governing reforms to the Single Payment Scheme have been published. Whilst information about the scheme has not been confirmed, details are now circulating and it is likely that many of these will be confirmed in due course.
Mark Neason of Stags Property Consultancy says that the new scheme will be completely separate from the old Payment Scheme, which will be brought to an end with the cancelling of all current entitlements.
Access to the successor farm payment scheme will be by newly allocated entitlements, which will be issued on the basis of eligible agricultural area farmed by an ‘active’ farmer in the first year of the new scheme. “It has been suggested that an active farmer will be one who derives more than 5% of their revenue from agriculture” states Mr Neason.
Under the new regime it is likely that payments will be at around 60% of current levels and a minimum area of 5 hectares or minimum payment of 200 Euros may be applied.
Like the original scheme a National Reserve is planned which will provide top ups for people who may have taken on land or started farming since any reference date which may be applied.
“One aspect of the proposed new scheme is that payments will include a sum for compliance with agri-environmental measures. In England these are likely to clash with those measures where additional payments are claimed under the Entry Level Scheme (ELS). This could mean a redrafting and re-submission of the ELS options” says Gareth Rowe of Stags Truro.
The new scheme is likely to impact on landlord / tenant relationships and activities carried out by farmers who would currently consider themselves to be active farmers but who may not qualify under the new, as yet, undefined criteria.
To explore some of these issues and provide further detail on the new payment scheme, Stags are holding a series of seminars and discussions for farmers and land owners throughout the south west. For more information please telephone either Exeter office on 01392 439046 (for Devon and Somerset venues), 01872 279911 for the Cornwall venue or email rpc@stags.co.uk