The majority of farmers who are eligible for BPS 2015 have now been paid, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has announced.
This amounts to just under £425 million reaching the bank accounts of 44,400 farmers, almost 51% of all claimants.
Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said: "I can confirm the RPA has met its commitment to pay the majority of eligible claims in December and remains on track to pay the vast majority of claims by the end of January.
"We understand the importance of these payments to our hard-working farmers and the RPA will continue to work flat out to ensure the agency meets its commitment to pay the remaining claims as quickly as possible."
More complex claims will take longer to process and are therefore likely to take longer to pay, as they did under the Single Payment Scheme.
The RPA will provide an update to those claimants who are unlikely to be paid by the end of January and an estimate as to when they will be paid to help them manage their cash flow.
CLA President Ross Murray said about the payments: “It is crucial that the RPA speeds up all outstanding payments. If it proves impossible to pay some businesses before end of January, they must be completely clear about the process and timeframe in which they will be paid. We will continue to do all we can to help the RPA to ensure that applications are processed as swiftly as possible.”
The NFU is urging the RPA to give farmers certainty and confidence in lieu of a paid claim as the RPA announces that just 50 per cent of farmers received a BPS payment last month.
NFU President Meurig Raymond said: “The RPA has kept its promise by less than one per cent - this ‘bare minimum’ approach does not bode well for its ‘vast majority’ promise by the end of January.
“The NFU will keep up the pressure on Defra and the RPA to be transparent in its progress announcements and is stressing the importance of having sufficient resource to get the payments out to farmers in the coming weeks.
“Farmers must have certainty of when they are going to be paid and this will give them the confidence they need to be able to run their businesses as normally as possible until they receive that crucial payment.”
NFU Vice President Guy Smith said: “In this announcement the RPA has confirmed there is almost exactly £1billion – 70 per cent of the fund - left to go out to 44,000 BPS claimants.
“Once received, this £1billion won’t be hanging around in farm bank accounts - it will pay bills benefitting the wider rural economy. Many rural businesses, not just farmers, are desperately waiting for this money.
“Additionally there is the impact this will be having on overdrafts; £1 billion at an average borrowing rate of 3.3 per cent equates to over £90,000 in interest every day being sucked out of the rural economy.
“More than 15,000 people have been told by the RPA they will not be paid until after the end of January. This continues to be a major concern. We are calling on the RPA to consider partial payments to these people and for Defra to give the resources needed to do it.
“The RPA must ensure farmers are aware of when they are going to be paid. No one can sensibly run a business on the basis they might be paid ‘sometime after January’.”
The NFU is pleased to see the RPA is making these announcements after the NFU’s efforts in urging the RPA to keep farmers informed on progress with claims.
In addition to the BPS payments, the Forestry Commission (FC) has also paid out over a third of capital payments, totalling £8million to woodland owners to protect, improve and expand woodlands in England. FC has also paid out 32% of valid annual claims worth just under £3million, and work is ongoing to pay outstanding valid annual claims as soon as possible.
The 2016 version of ‘The guide to cross compliance in England’ is now available. This 2016 guidance applies from 1 January and farmers are urged to familiarise themselves with it to make sure they know which rules apply to their holding.
RPA has also sent a leaflet to offline farmers, to explain what’s changed in the cross compliance guidance since last year.
