One in five farm subsidy payments made to 'Rich List' families

Overall the top 100 recipients received a combined £49.9m in payments last year
Overall the top 100 recipients received a combined £49.9m in payments last year

One in five of the 100 largest payments made under European Union farming subsidies will be given to families in the Sunday Times 'Rich List'.

The findings have been published as new Defra secretary Michael Gove has reignited debate around the fate of farm subsidies post-Brexit by promising to reform the system after 2020.

Engineer Sir James Dyson's farm business has become the largest private recipient of subsidies in the UK, receiving £1.6m last year.

Farming depends greatly on subsidies. The total of £2.9bn received via the CAP represents 73% of total farm incomes in the UK.

New entrants to the list include Wagyu beef farm owned by the son of former UAE ambassador to the UK, Mahdi Al-Tajir and the Duke of Buccleuch, whose 215,000 acres of land across southern Scotland.

The Earl of Rosebery and his son Lord Dalmeny were also both on the list.

Prince Khalid Abdullah al Saud, whose internationally famous racehorse breeding operation Juddmonte Farms, based in Newmarket, received £492,666 in CAP subsidies last year.

'Broken' subsidy system

Overall the top 100 recipients received a combined £49.9m in payments last year, more than was paid out to the bottom 35,000 combined, Greenpeace's Energydesk said.

"Our investigation exposes a broken farm subsidy system that fails both our countryside and the British public," Greenpeace's UK policy director Doug Parr said.

"Our findings show the new environment secretary, Michael Gove, has his work cut out.

"He has said some encouraging things about reforming farm subsidies so that they improve environmental protection and food quality.

"Now he needs to show he's willing to take on the vested interests profiting from the status quo and push through a major reform. Britain has never had a better opportunity to reshape our farming sector for the common good."

Supporting jobs

A similar list was made by the organisation last September, but Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley said his business was supporting jobs in Northumberland with the subsidies.

"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."

The Tenant Farmers' Association is one organisation that wants to keep the current subsidy system but split the cash between enhancing the environment, creating infrastructure to develop farm businesses, and public funding to promote British food.