The Presidents of the NFU, NFU Cymru and the Ulster Farmers’ Union have welcomed the decision on the allocation of the CAP budget between England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The joint statement said: “We are pleased that Ministers have listened to our representations and have decided “to resist pressure from Scotland for an increased share that would have been at the expense of other parts of the UK”.
“The share of both Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 funds will remain exactly as it was in the last budgetary period. We believe this is a fair settlement for farmers across the United Kingdom. The resolution of the budgetary split now allows the four governments to take further decisions on CAP Reform with a clear idea of available resources in the next seven-year period.”
The CLA welcomed the Government’s decision that the overall reduction in Common Agricultural Policy budget - equating to 12.6 per cent in real terms over the 2014-2020 period - will be shared equally between the four UK administrations.
CLA President Harry Cotterell said the CLA appreciated that in an age of austerity agriculture has to take its share of the cuts along with every other sector, and said it was pleased that, overall, CAP budget has not been cut by far more.
Cotterell said: “We believe the fairest approach was simply to have the same percentage reduction across the UK.”
