Farm subsidy system 'utterly broken': Wealthy landowners top recipient list

In August, Greenpeace revealed Conservative Party donors and key Leave campaigners earned £4 million from EU subsidies last year
In August, Greenpeace revealed Conservative Party donors and key Leave campaigners earned £4 million from EU subsidies last year

Farm subsidy payments funded by the UK taxpayer are being paid to millionaire landowners, with £400,000 going to a billionaire Saudi prince, it has been reported.

Top beneficiaries receiving EU farm subsidies include the Queen, Lord Iveagh, the Duke of Westminster, Duke of Northumberland, Saudi horse breeder Khalid Abdullah al Saud and others - each receiving upwards of £400,000 each.

The largest recipient on the list is Frank Smart, whose Aberdeenshire farm saw him receive a total payment of £2,963,732.77.

In August, Greenpeace revealed Conservative Party donors and key Leave campaigners earned £4 million from EU subsidies last year.

Supporters and donors of Vote Leave, could benefit further from large pay-outs to their estates, including Lord Bamford and Sir James Dyson.

'Country estates of the super-rich'

"As the new environment secretary, Andrea Leadsom has a crucial decision to make for the future of our environment," Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said.

There have been calls for farming subsidy reform when the UK leaves the EU
There have been calls for farming subsidy reform when the UK leaves the EU

"She can allow wealthy landowners to keep millions of pounds worth of taxpayer farm subsidies or she can use this opportunity to finally sort out this broken system.

"It’s hard to imagine people accepting that money promised to the NHS from Brexit campaigners, including some big landowners, could be lavished instead on the country estates of the super-rich.

"These public funds need to be targeted on helping farmers facing real hardship and in supporting schemes that protect our wildlife, prevent floods and store carbon."

Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley said the Blagdon estate is a business supporting jobs in Northumberland.

"All CAP subsidies received by the Blagdon estate are re-invested on the estate, including in environmental conservation such as the creation of new flower meadows, new hedgerows and new environmentally friendly field margins, for which the estate has won awards.

"In campaigning for the UK to leave the EU I was arguing in the broader public interest, and against my own immediate interest."

'Utterly broken'

Greenpeace chief scientist Doug Parr told BBC News the subsidy system is "utterly broken."

"We need public money spent on farming to be offering demonstrable public benefits," Mr Parr said.

The Taxpayers' Alliance said farmers "should be put on notice."

"Taxpayers shouldn't be handing out what are effectively land subsidies, often to extremely wealthy individuals."

But in a joint statement to Mrs Leadsom just hours after her appointment, leaders of the UK's farming unions issued a call for the maintenance of subsidies at EU levels.

During their referendum campaigns, Leadsom and farm minister George Eustice said that current levels would be kept.

"I have made it clear that I will guarantee the current level of support under a UK Agricultural Policy," Leadsom told the Countryside Alliance echoing similar statements made by Eustice that countries outside of the EU were able to give more to their farmers than the UK currently does.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the Treasury select committee that "all farmers will continue to receive the current levels of subsidy.

"It would be at the level that they currently enjoy and that level of support would be perpetuated."