Farm support and the Sustainable Farming Scheme

Vikki HowellsLabour

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

Okay. So, if I can just check, then—? Dennis favours a separate approach for common land farmers. Could I just check with the rest of the panel whether they agree with that? My feeling was that both previous speakers were alluding to a universal system that should be able to incorporate common land…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Sustainable Farming Scheme”Official Record

Dennis Matheson

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

Diolch. We think it should be a separate agreement, because, as Aled said, and as everybody has said, commoners cannot enter the scheme as it is—they just wouldn't be able to. We've had a lot of experience on this in Dartmoor, where it's been a potential disaster, with the managers of the commons…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Sustainable Farming Scheme”Official Record

Gareth Parry

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

Yes, I just want to highlight as well that common land has been eligible for area-based payments for going on 20 years through the basic payment scheme and other schemes, so there is no reason why we can't continue a similar payment. It's worth highlighting that around 2,000 of those who claim on…

Tagged for: “basic payment scheme”, “BPS”, “universal actions”Official Record

Aled Jones

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

Yes, okay. The common land working group should have sorted many of these issues. They should have been working through all of these knotty issues so that we have clarity at the moment. There's a lot of frustration. My figure is 10 per cent of the land area in Wales being common land, and there are…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Sustainable Farming Scheme”Official Record

Vikki HowellsLabour

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

Diolch, Cadeirydd, and good morning, panel. I'd like to go a little further on this issue of common land, which some of you have already started to address, because there are 175,000 hectares of common land in Wales—it's about 8.5 per cent of our total land mass—and I'm certainly keen that we make…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Sustainable Farming Scheme”Official Record

Dominic Hampson-Smith

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

Just to give my point of view on it, I think the 17 universal actions, as we've already alluded to, are too many. A lot of them will not apply to some farms, I appreciate that, but we need to keep it basic and give people the opportunity to get into the scheme. Once they're in the scheme, I think…

Tagged for: “universal actions”Official Record

Dennis Matheson

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

Just to bring in one thing, which I brought up the other day, a lot of these universal actions have to be completed online, and there are a significant number of farmers who are not online in Wales, including me. What are they going to do? They'll have to employ a professional to do it, which will…

Tagged for: “universal actions”Official Record

Aled Jones

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

…So, I go back to that, and I've also suggested several times before there are some elements within the universal actions that are disrespectful to some farmers as well, because the expertise that they hold for many, many generations as well—it should be considered. So, I hope there will be some…

Tagged for: “universal actions”Official Record

Gareth Parry

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

…one by one, but notwithstanding specific concerns and queries, issues et cetera within each of those universal actions, what we would like to see, as has been alluded to already—. An array of 17 universal actions is overly bureaucratic, to be honest, and it will cost every single farm business that…

Tagged for: “universal actions”Official Record

Samuel KurtzConservative

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

Diolch, Cadeirydd. I'm going to have some questions around the action layers and the universal actions, optional and collaborative. And I just wanted the panel's view on the 17 universal actions, and, then, their thoughts on the Welsh Government's emphasis or reduced emphasis on the optional and…

Tagged for: “universal actions”Official Record

Jenny RathboneLabour

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

So, the problem we have is how are we going to cope with these landlords. Because they're all part of the challenge that we all face, and it's not a God-given right that they can do something completely different, which then puts—. We're talking about 30 per cent of all land being tenanted. I hadn't…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Sustainable Farming Scheme”Official Record

Dennis Matheson

9 May 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions

…no, he wants to start it on 1 January. What you could do—and I've suggested this—is you could leave the basic payment scheme as it is, don't start reducing it at all, and that would give more time to come up with something. But for tenancy law and agriculture definitions, et cetera, it could take 10…

Tagged for: “basic payment scheme”Official Record