Spin claim on promise of 'new' money for farmers

A PROMISE of billions of pounds of new money for the rural economies of England has been condemned as another example of government "spin".

A Yorkshire Post investigation has revealed that much of the money involved was previously being spent on similar schemes and the rest is covered by money taken off the farmers.

Altogether, it is far from clear that rural economies will be better off than they were a year ago.

Following desperate messages of concern about the future of livestock farming, the Government recently announced that it was putting £3.9bn into the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE).

After deductions for national schemes, the Yorkshire/Humber region was said to be getting £9.5m a year to be spent by the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward.

But it now emerges that Yorkshire Forward had at least £6.6m for the last year from a number of schemes which have been consolidated into this one.