Our National Environment and Land Use Adviser, Rachel Lewis-Davies, discusses the need for certainty with future policy as funding ends in December 2023. Rachel writes...
Given Welsh Government’s emphasis on the environment within future policy, avoiding such a ‘cliff-edge’ would appear logical. It is also vital for the farm businesses affected; for the ongoing delivery of environmental outcomes; and, also to ensure that the confidence of farmers in the direction of travel is maintained.
Almost one million pounds a month for Farming Connect
No such uncertainty for Farming Connect, as in recent weeks Welsh Government has announced £22.9m – almost a million pounds a month – for the programme for the next two years to support farmers as they prepare to move to the Sustainable Farming Scheme.
The programme, Welsh Government says, will ‘provide advice on how farming businesses can adapt and remain competitive’ and is being supported with a significant budgetary uplift. Our understanding is that the Farming Connect Programme received £53m of funding during the period August 2015 to March 2023 – a monthly spend of around £576k – and that was an increase in budget of some 50% from the 2007-2013 Rural Development Programme.
Rural investment
We understand the Farming Connect announcement forms part of the £227m package of rural investment announced in April 2022. In recent months, Welsh Government has announced application windows for various schemes – some new like the Horticulture Start Up and Growing for the Environment – whilst many are a carryover and re-badging of the Schemes from the EU Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 (RDP 2014-2020).
The RDP 2014-2020 closes at the end of 2023. Welsh Government figures show that 81% of the £842m fund had been spent to the end of 2022 with £162m remaining including £70m of domestic co-financing.
NFU Cymru will be watching closely to see that the RDP is delivered in full and whilst it is fair to say that the implementation of the RDP 2014-2020 has been extremely frustrating and has not lived up to the early rhetoric of a billion-pound fund for transformational change, it has at least been possible to monitor its progress (or lack of) through the reporting requirements established in rural development regulations.
Rachel Lewis-Davies, NFU Cymru
RDP delivery
NFU Cymru will be watching closely to see that the RDP is delivered in full and whilst it is fair to say that the implementation of the RDP 2014-2020 has been extremely frustrating and has not lived up to the early rhetoric of a billion-pound fund for transformational change, it has at least been possible to monitor its progress (or lack of) through the reporting requirements established in rural development regulations.
Thus far, Welsh Government appears to be making no such commitments in relation to planning, transparency and accountability in respect of the transitional rural development funds. Beyond policy circles this may not appear to matter, but if we are unable to demonstrate what funding is needed for, how it will be spent and what it has delivered for farming and rural communities, how can the case be made to UK Government and Welsh Treasury for such funding in the future?
