SRDP funding safe until 2022

Cash paid to farmers under the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) will continue post-Brexit, to the end of the current parliament (2022).

The budget under Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy in the UK, in cash terms, will be rolled forward year by year, Minister of State George Eustice has confirmed.

In a letter to the House of Lords EU Energy and Environment sub-committee, dated 11 September, Eustice stated that “the average annual cash total for farm support under the existing 2014 to 2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, and the average annual national Exchequer funding provided for farm support under Pillar 2, will be rolled forward year by year until the end of this parliament”.

Merely a courtesy

The Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy in Scotland, Fergus Ewing, made fleeting reference to the fact that he was aware of the letter at a Scottish Parliament committee meeting on Wednesday this week. But he said it would be “courteous” of Westminster to inform him directly.

Ewing wrote to DEFRA minister Michael Gove earlier this month seeking confirmation as to whether the full Pillar 2 budget would continue or would it just be “farm support”.

If it was just “farm support”, he asked for clarity on the sections to be included.

The SRDP budget for 2014 to 2020, for example, covers £419m in LFASS payments, £308m in the agri-environmental climate scheme, £267m in the forestry grant scheme, £25m in the beef efficiency scheme as well as other areas such as LEADER (£82m) and broadband (£9m).

Support to be matched

A spokesperson for DEFRA maintained that Westminster will “match the current level of farm support until the end of this parliament. [This] will apply to payments for farm support under both pillars of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)”.

Mr Gove previously committed to continuing direct payments to farmers (BPS), which currently come from Pillar 1 of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. This is the first time a clear commitment has been made on Pillar 2 payments which are co-funded by the Scottish Government.

However, it is not clear whether the Scottish government will have the flexibility to deliver the funding through the current schemes in the SRDP.